Death by chocolate cake & Happy Blogday!

Here we are, it's been one year since I've launched Pauline a la crème anglaise, and it's been a fantastic year!

How has it changed my life?

• For many people, A la crème anglaise has become my surname
• I've improved my pastry skills a lot, and now only make totally disastrous cakes once in a while
• I'm expected to bring cakes everywhere I go (Pauline = cake, it's as simple as that)
• Props, books about British baking and ingredients have invaded my room and my kitchen
• My week-end plans now revolve around the ultimate priority "when can I bake and blog?"
• I discovered a passion for food photography, got a DSLR camera and my bedtime readings are now about food photography  (and god, there is so much to learn!)
• I've extended my general shopping addiction to include looking for props for my blog
• Some people I don't know comment positively on my blog and every single positive comment makes me feel like I just won an award
• When people ask me what I do, I tend to start talking about my blog before my work!
• People are still very surprised when I tell them that I got passionnate about British baking (the French think I'm crazy, and the British are suprised that someone french could look up to their food, rather down at it)

It's been an incredible adventure so far, and I hope that's just the beginning!
So without further a do, let's celebrate with a blogday cake!

 

Death by chocolate 

Birthday cake

As my growing experience doesn't make up for my lack of concentration, I forgot to include the butter in my cake altogether!
And, Big Surprise, the cake was still really nice!
So, depending on if you wish to make the normal recipe or my "skinny by mistake" version of it, feel free to include the butter, or not! 

Ingredients for the sponge
300g good quality cooking chocolate
150g unsalter butter, diced (optional)
5 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
100g caster sugar 

Ingredients for the topping: 
200g good quality chocolate
100ml double cream 

Make the chocolate cake: 

1/ preheat the oven at 180deg C. 

2/ In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate and butter (check every minute and mix), until smooth. Leave to cool.

3/ In a large bowl (or in the bowl of an electric stand mixer), mix the eggs and vanilla for few seconds. Add the sugar, and mix with an electric mixer until very light and fluffy and volume approx. multiplied by  5 (it will take 5 minutes or so). When lifted with the whisk, the mix should fall back in a very thick ribbon -like trail

4/ Spoon the chocolate mixture into the egg mousse and fold in very gently with a metal spoon until well mixed (the dough should stay moussy)

5/ Pour into a cake tin (approx 22cm diametre) lined with greaseproof paper and butter and bake for approx 35-45 minutes until just firm to the touch (the centre should still be a little moist under the crust, as the cake will slightly continue cooking when out of the oven)

6/ Leave to cool before transfering to a cooling rack.

Prepare the topping: 

1/ In a bowl in the microwave, warm the cream and chocolate until the chocolate is half-melted. Whisk by hand until all the chocolate is melted. 

2/ Cover the cake with the topping and leave to set in the fridge for at least two hours (ideally overnight)

3/ Serve the cake cold with a dollop of double cream

Thanks to Lisou and Berthe my Nestlé chocolate providers! This recipe wouldn't have been possible without you ;-)