chocolate cake with salted caramel sauce

I think the title of this recipe should really be salted caramel sauce with a side of chocolate gateau as that’s how this came about.  Somehow in my twisted thinking, you can’t just have caramel, you need to have something to justify eating the caramel, and naturally that something was chocolate cake.

I had bookmarked this recipe a long time along and for reasons completely foreign to me, just got around to making it now.  It was the first time I put to use one of the gifts given to me by Mr. KC for Christmas.  My first kitchen scale.  As utterly naive and stupid as this sounds, I can’t believe how much this has changed my cooking.  Why don’t we weigh things in the States?  It’s SO much easier.  It really is.  I’ve done my best to offer the cup equivalents to the measurements below, but maybe just maybe my ringing endorsement will be enough for you to head run out and buy one of these life changers.

KC side note: I undercooked this cake.  You will note that at the tip of the piece of cake it points down quite a bit.  Yeah, that’s because it’s about 2 minutes shy of being total liquid.  For a split moment I thought,” Maybe I could call it  a molten chocolate cake.”  But the health and safety voice in my head said “No, that’s just raw batter”.  So, I did what any responsible adult would do and ate the piece I already cut justifying that I could only so sick from one little piece, threw the cake back in the oven for another 10 minutes and called it a day.  Ultimately it wasn’t cooked to perfection, but I really didn’t care, it tasted like perfection and that’s all that matters in the world of chocolate cakes.

Chocolate Cake
adapted from Foodbeam’s recipe

Ingredients

• 200g/7ounces dark chocolate (I used Ghiradelli’s 60% cocoa nibs).  For cup measurements, you could do 1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup.
• 240g/17tbsps butter
• 8 eggs
• 400g/1 1/4 cp sugar
• 130g/1 1/3cp flour
• 1 tsp Cointreau (or Grand Marnier)
• 1/4 cp shaved almonds

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 175°C or  350°F, and generously butter a 26cm-wide/10 inch cake pan.
2. In a microwave safe bowl, add both the chocolate and butter.  See how easy the scale makes my life?
3. Set the microwave to high and heat for about 2 minutes, stopping every 30 seconds to stir.
4. In a heatproof bowl, mix together your eggs and sugar, place over  a water bath.
5. Mix these two together until egg mixture approaches room temperature (this took about 3-4 minutes for me)
6. Now, add the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and whisk until fully incorporated.
7. Stir in 1 tsp cointreau.
8. Sift in the flour and using a rubber spatula, slowly mix until smooth.
9. Pour the batter into buttered cake pan.
10. Sprinkle shaved almond over the top
11. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until set.  Learn from my mistakes and use a tooth pick test in the middle here to make sure that you aren’t serving the best chocolate cake batter on the block.
12. Serve with a caramel sauce, fresh whipped cream, or if you’re a purist, just leave good enough alone.
13. Enjoy!