birthday cake

For Jake's birthday, I made a chocolate soufflé from Le Bernardin cookbook a la epicurious.com. This was actually my first time baking a cake from scratch, so I was quite nervous and careful about not fucking up Jake's birthday cake. After a large brick of Scharffen Berger chocolate, two sticks of butter, five eggs, sugar, and flour, out popped this Petit Kuchen and five others like it.
I served this with Vanilla I.C. and blueberries, with a dusting of Ghirardelli Hazelnut hot chocolate mix. Name dropping aside, this cake was fucking sabroso. I forgot to photograph the best part - but yes, the center was molten chocolate.



Here's the recipe:
6 1/2 ounces extra-bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup plus 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 large eggs, separated
1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
Unsweetened cocoa power, for garnish

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT: Eight 6-ounce aluminum tins
Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bring a pan of water barely to a simmer. Place the chocolate and butter in a double boiler or metal mixing bowl and place over the pan of hot but not simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has melted but is not too hot. Stir until smooth.

2. In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks and 1/4 cup of sugar together until thickened slightly and lighter in color. Whisk in the flour and then the chocolate mixture.

3. Place the egg whites in a metal bowl and place over hot water until warmed slightly. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar and whip with an electric mixer on medium-low speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1 1/2 tablespoons more sugar. Turn the speed to high and add the last 1/2 tablespoon of sugar, whipping the whites to firm peaks.

4. Stir a third of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Fold in the remaining whites. Divide the batter among the tins. (The recipe can be made to this point up to 1 1/2 hours before serving; refrigerate).

5. Place the tins on a baking sheet and bake until the tops are puffed and feel firm to the touch but are very liquidy in the center, about 8 minutes (or a few minutes longer if they were cold).

6. Meanwhile, sift a little cocoa lightly over 8 dessert plates. Three minutes after the cakes are done, run the tip of a knife around the sides to loosen, and unmold the cakes onto the plates, rinsing the knife with hot water between each one. Serve immediately with vanilla ice cream or chocolate sorbet.

That sebaceous blemish was upon his nostral demeanor pre-cocoa-kuchen bliss.