FIRE AND WATER: LAVA CAKE
My 7th Lava.
JG called it JG's Chocolate cake, Beard Papa preferred the french "Fondant Au Chocolat", I prefer the more common : Lava Cake. The Chinese generally know it as 溶浆蛋糕. What can more aptly describe the texture of that molten goodness oozing out of its spongy solid future than ........ "LAVA". And calling it "Half-baked Chocolate Cake" is just too unromantic even for me. But essentially the Lava Cake is a half-baked chocolate cake. Its amazingly simple (really!) but i only got it right on my 2nd attempt, or more precisely, my 8th lava cake (4 cakes per attempt, 1 cake baked at a time).
The first one was actually closest to the 8th. But it was too futuristic : ie too much future and too little present, ie too much baked cake and too little molten choc. The second and third one was all baked. I guess you can say it was a really moist cake but i won't use it for any chocolate sponge recipe. Too airy. The fourth was unset. The fifth, sixth had a hole in the middle which spurted out lava when i overturned it. The 7th was close to perfection, the problem was a hole in the middle of the top (sponge stuck to base), which i had to dust icing upon (refer to above photo) to 遮羞. (think adam's fig leaf) Upon the 7th, I made a few notes: 1) The temperature was definitely off for most of the tries. They didn't manage to crisp the exterior and when they actually did, they took a long time and cooked the inside as well. I needed shorter timing but higher temperature. 2) The oven needed top fire or the whole top of the pudding cup (also the base of the lava cake) will be uncooked and when it finally is cooked, your whole cake is too. So I did a 5 minute 220 degrees (using my oven thermometer as my oven is erratic) top-bottom fire. And my 8th baby was born :
There. Look at it! *fights a tear* , SO liquidyyyyy insideeeee.
And upon success (if i can say so), it was time to add some personal touches to my 9th baby. There were a few observations :
1) Too sweet (I reduced sugar but i can't overdo it or the overall texture will be affected)
2) A pinch of salt will mitigate the sugar overkill so i use salted butter. (As recommended by alot of fellow blogging cooks)
3) It was a little too rich for me. I was never the chocolate person.
4) I wanted to distinguish the flavor inside and outside.
So my 9th baby turned out like this :
Fresh strawberries to downplay the richness of the choc, the whipped cream serves that purpose too but helps to add depth to the dish by adding something cold to go with the hot lava. The cocoa powder (considered cinnamon but worried that it'll steal the show) er... is purely aesthetic? And finally there's a secret ingredient!
When the spoon dug into the cake, before the thick lava chocolate sauce gushed out, there was a mystery guest! GASP. A liquid! Lick lick. UNDOUBTEDLY, WHISKEY.
That gave the lava a slightly different kick from the sponge (besides the texture). What's the trick? *****internal struggle***** BE GONE NOW SELFISHNESS! *banishes it like Gandalf*
With a needle i got from the pharmacy. Injected the liquid after lava was cooked. Imagine the possibilities!! Rum, Grand Marnier, Baileys, Orange juice, caramel sauce (i'll definitely rather drizzle that on top to boast the colors),
Oh and a note, i didn't have my piping nozzles (lost the two i bought in Shanghai.hmmm) so i decided to spoon it , ending off with little peaks to have a slight meringue effect accentuated by the apparent "browning" by the cocoa powder. It stretched across the plate, hmmm my first attempt at wow-ing my desserts.
Oh and i baked Neiman Marcus Cookies after that. Will touch on that again! Too much blogging to catch up with! Yay i have something to do when i get back to sg.
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