FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE!!
In La Cucina catering is a big part of our business, we do a lot of catering for UL and the local Industrial Estate. We also do private catering for parties at home - christenings, birthdays etc. Last night we were invited to a "fancy schmancy" party at Federico Puccarello's house(Argentian player on the Munster team) where we also did the catering which was a first for us to be eating our own food at a party. It was his wife Carlotta's birthday and they are regular customers in both La Cucina and Bru's parents restaurant La Piccola Italia so we know them quite well and were delighted they asked us to cater! Everybody loved the food and half the party were our customers anyway as a few of the team were there- Barry Murphy, Ian Dowling, Anthony Foley - such shameless name dropping;), the big names obviously weren't there as they are in France. There was lots of rugby talk as you can imagine and it was really interesting to hear their opinions as to what's going on in the World Cup, sorry but I didn't get any gossip:)! There was lots of foodie talk too as the couple that own the Market Square restaurant were there and their Italian manager so lots of talk about the restaurant business and Italian food, my favourite past-time of course so we had a very enjoyable night!
My parents minded the princess last night so I decided to bake them a little cake yesterday, this recipe was in last month's edition of Olive and looked so good I had to give it a go!
WHAT YOU NEED:
- 200g 70% dark chocolate.
- 90g unsalted butter plus extra for greasing
- 55g caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 150g ground almonds
WHAT TO DO:
- heat the oven to 180 degrees.
- butter and base line a 18cm non-stick springform cake tin.
- put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and melt over a pot of simmering water.
- use an electric mixer to beat the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy. Gently fold the melted chocolate and ground almonds into the egg mixture using a metal spoon. Pour carefully into the tin.
- bake for 30 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.
As moist as it looks we found it a little dry and had to have it hot with some ice-cream - it was too dry to eat alone but it was still nice though but not the best chocolate cake I've ever had by any means:)
BUON APPETITO!!
The cake looks lovely, might be nice with some berries to moisten it up a bit. I called into that tobacco shop on Saturday for a cappucino and some chocolate. It was very quaint but there are no tables & chairs there yet. Oh, and you're be delighted to hear that there wasn't a sugar lump in sight!!!
Sarah (Comment this)
Sarah - Ya they topped it with blueberries in Olive so maybe that would work, the thing is it was quite moist but it just wasn't right!! I must venture into this little place, sounds lovely and he is already in my good books with the absence of sugar lumps:)
Rob - ya that's a good idea!! I don't know if it was me or the recipe!! It must have been the recipe;) (Comment this)
and am suprised the cake wasn't moist enough too, I make an almond roulade that's almost flourless but it involves seperating the eggs and mixing in the beaten whites at the end, maybe you could try that and there would be more air in the cake and so it would be lighter? (Comment this)
Kevin - I know that's why I was so surprised, I think the almonds made it dry!!
CB - Thanks, it's a great area to get into but can be quite difficult as there is a lot involved in party food especially finger food as it is labour intensive. Most people's budget is on the drink so the food budget comes second. I might try that the next time with the eggs!!
Sylvia - Thanks and welcome, I think the photos make it look good;)
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