A Simple and Tasty Chocolate Cake Recipe
Things couldn't be better with summer in full swing, with freshly cut grass, trees sprouting, and flowers blooming everywhere under the sun. Although chocolate is often reserved for colder weather, there’s no reason to deny yourself something as chocolatey and indulgent as this recipe. Here is a simple chocolate cake made with five ingredients. It's light and tender, and perfect for steamy summer days.
The recipe comes from Pâtisserie and Baking Foundations Classic Recipes, a textbook-ish collection published by Le Cordon Bleu. Often used as a base for more complicated desserts like Feuille d’Automne (Fall leaves), and Croustillant au Chocolat (Crispy chocolate mousse), this chocolate cake is just as enjoyable by itself. I would even venture to say that it's better homemade and decorated in your own way!
Ingredients (serves 1 to 4 people, your call):
- 3 Eggs, yolk and white separated
- Caster Sugar, 75 grams
- Plain flour, 35 grams
- Cornstarch, 25 grams
- Cocoa powder, 15 grams
How:
1. Beat the egg whites into a firm meringue (when you lift the whisk from the mixture, there'll be a small curled tip at the end of the whisk); gradually add the sugar as you whip the egg whites.
2. Whisk the yolks until smooth; add it to the fluffy egg white foam.
3. Mix the flour, cornstarch, and cocoa powder together; gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture (mix with a spatula till you don’t see lumps of flour; don’t over-mix since we want to retain the air in the mixture, which makes the cake fluffy).
4. Pour the mixture into a mold of your choice.
5. Bake at 355F for 18 minutes (if not completely set after 18 minutes, bake for a little longer but definitely keep an eye on the cake).
This is it! I throw in some chopped chocolate just to intensify the flavor. You could also serve the cake with ice-cream, strawberries, whipped cream, icing sugar, or all the above (no shame!).
Nigella Lawson and Nik Sharma recently talked about “empowering home cooks”, which really resonated with me. This chocolate cake is a perfect opportunity to transform a classic recipe for fancy pastry into an approachable dessert for home cooks to improvise and enjoy.
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