Du Gâteau au Chocolat ^_^

Whenever I am having a bad day, chocolate always makes it better. It never fails to put a smile on my face (especially good quality chocolate). When reading the book The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz, I came across a recipe for French Chocolate Cake and I finally made it tonight, with some slight changes of course. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 9 ounces dark chocolate chips
• 1 stick of unsalted butter (cubed)
• 1/3 cup cane sugar (I use cane sugar instead of white/brown sugar in almost all my recipes)
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature, separated
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons of coffee or a coffee liqueur 

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350º and generously spray a 9-inch loaf pan with Pam.
• In a large bowl set over a pan of simmering water, heat the chocolate, butter and coffee together until melted and smooth.
• Remove from heat and stir in half the sugar, then the yolks, and lastly the flour.
• With an electric mixer, whip the whites with the salt until it forms peaks. Add the remaining sugar and continue to whip.
• With a rubber spatula, fold in one-third of the egg whites in the chocolate mix to lighten mix. Fold in the rest of the whites until the mixture is smooth and no white marks remain.
• Scrape the batter into the loaf pan, smooth the top, and bake for 35 minutes (be sure to not over bake it.
• Let the cake cool in the pan before serving.

Since it is the holidays, I enjoyed my cake with some brandy and eggnog. If I were serving this for dinner or at a birthday party, I would cut the cake into inch thick slices and lay them flat on a plate, cut and fan out a fresh strawberry topped with a dollop of fresh whipped cream and lastly a glass of bubbly (champagne, prosecco, moscato d'asti or stella rosa red).

Bon appetite!

-L