GOOEY CHOCOLATE CAKE ~ TUESDAYS WITH DORIE

                                                            
115 Bakers and Growing!
It's Tuesday again, and that means it's time for another round of Dorie Desserts! I'll catch you up on the Tuesdays With Dorie stats. This is my third week with the TWD group. When I started, I was number 76 on the list. Last week there was 102. As of 4:00am today, (yeah, I'm up late!) there is a new total of 115 Bakers!  That is just freakin' amazing! And to think, it all started with one person, Laurie of quirky cupcake, and ended up with 115. Where will it end?

Join an Online Baking Group
I was a busy little baker today...oh, I mean yesterday. I made my Gooey Chocolate Cakes, from "Baking: From My Home To Yours", posted a blog entry for Strawberry Muffins AND I wrote and published an article for Suite101 titled "Join an Online Baking Group", featuring none other than Tuesdays With Dorie! Now, I'm sitting here after 3am, falling asleep at the kitchen table, trying to finish this post before bed!

I am totally enjoying this Baking & Blogging thing! I was SO meant for this. Competition, fun, baking,
competition, blogging and did I say competition? Actually, these baking events and challenges weren't designed to be competitive, I just can't help myself! See an earlier post for the Cupcake Hero and you'll understand where I'm coming from! Soooo, WHY do they call it a challenge if it's not competitive?
                                                                                 
Oven Failure!
I waited till the last day to make my Gooey Chocolate Cakes. I hate to procrastinate, but that's what happened. We're staying with my daughter, Kerri for a week, and I was excited to use her big girl oven and Kitchen Aid mixer while I was here. I made sure I bought all my ingredients earlier in the week and then remembered that her oven doesn't work! My other daughter, Erika, has an oven that works, but it was snowing all day. So, my darling husband went out and bought a new part for the oven, came back and fixed it for Kerri....and me too. (Gooey Chocolate Cake is a great motivator!)

The oven came up to temperature and worked fine ~ or so we thought! When I got ready to put the cakes in, the thermometer showed 425°, which is 25° higher than it's supposed to be. Anyway....to make a long story short, my Gooey Chocolate Cakes weren't as Gooey as they were supposed to be :-(  They were still delicious and everyone loved them! I sprinkled powdered sugar all over the tops and made a quick White Chocolate Ganache for a drizzle and to puddle around the cakes. Some of us had Ice Cream on the side.

Would I Make It Again?
Most Definitely! It was a very easy recipe and quite delicious. As there is no way to judge when the cakes are done, I would make darn sure the oven is at the right temperature before baking. I would probably flavor the next batch with coffee or espresso and maybe make a side of creme anglaise to go with them.
My Baking Chicks took off on their own vacation this week, but if they were here, they would rate them a 4 out of 5!
                                                                     
GOOEY CHOCOLATE CAKE

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, (4 ounces coarsely chopped, and 1 ounce very finely chopped)
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
• 6 tablespoons of sugar

Directions: (My Notes: I dusted the insides with cocoa which gave it a much better presentation)

• Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Butter (or spray – it’s easier) 6 cups of a regular-size muffin pan, preferably a disposable aluminum foil pan, dust the insides with flour (or cocoa) and tap out the excess. Put the muffin pan on a baking sheet.
• Sift the flour, cocoa and salt together.
• Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water, put the coarsely chopped chocolate and the butter in the bowl and stir occasionally over the simmering water just until they are melted – you don’t want them to get so hot that the butter separates.  Remove the bowl from the pan of water.
• In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and yolk until homogeneous. 
• Add the sugar and whisk until well blended, about 2 minutes. 
• Add the dry ingredients and, still using the whisk, stir (don’t beat) them into the eggs.  Little by little, and using a light hand, stir in the melted chocolate and butter.  Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and sprinkle the finely chopped chocolate over the batter.
• Bake the cakes for 13 minutes.  Transfer them, still on the baking sheet, to a rack to cool for 3 minutes. (There is no way to test that these cakes are properly baked, because the inside remains liquid.)
• Line a cutting board with a silicone baking mat or parchment or wax paper, and, after the 3-minute rest, unmold the cakes onto the board.  Use a wide metal spatula to lift the cakes onto dessert plates.   

Don't forget to read my articles: A Cookbook Review of "Baking: From My Home To Yours" by Dorie Greenspan and also, "Join an Online Baking Group".

                                                                                 

Comments

[jenn]

The cocoa is a great idea! Thank for next time!

[Gretchen Noelle]

Wonderful job! So glad the oven got fixed in time to make these!

[mari]

Wowsa, it took a lot of effort to get those babies made!

They look good and I love the added decadence of white chocolate ganache, YUM!

[kimberleyblue]

Mmmm - yours look lovely! I would also flavour them with something extra too, but they were tasty as is.

[CB]

White chocolate ganache... drooool
Clara

[Robin]

Yum!! These look fantastic! :-)

[Amy W]

Those look great!

[Madam Chow]

Great photos, and thanks for linking to your articles, which I will read!

[Marie]

You've really got some great goo going on there! I think your cakes look fabulous! Mine were more fudgy than gooey, but they did taste delicious, especially with a drizzle of muscovado toffee sauce and some clotted cream!!

[Dianne]

They look fabulous! I like the cocoa idea.

[Annemarie]

Wow, you've been busy...your cakes look fabulous!

[April]

These look great!

[Cecilia]

What a great idea! You might not have gotten the molten chocolate in the center, but you definitely provided it with the white chocolate ganache. Beautifully done, and I'm glad that the cakes still tasted good.

[Heather]

Great job! I'm sure they were a great reward for your husband to fix the oven!

[laurie]

Beautiful! I love the idea of the white chocolate. I could have used some extra sweetness. I thought we would use them on ice cream tonight, but my kids ate them all today. Not one left. So even though there was no goo, it didnt seem to make much difference in this house.

[Natalie]

Lovely lovely lovely! (Chocolate is a great motivator to fix everything, :D)

[LyB]

They look really nice drizzled with the white chocolate!

[Piggy]

great idea to have the cakes with white chocolate ganache! :-)

[Mary C. Anderson]

Oh they look so delicious. I am drooling all over my keyboard.

Mary