CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH SALTY TOFFE AND MULBERRIES

Honestly, me and chocolate cakes are living in a complicated relationship. Our problems arise from the fact that I have not found the right recipe yet. The one who makes me lose my head and stop thinking about the apple pies. Every time I think “she’s the one” and then nothing. The feeling fades after the last bite of the second slice. With this cake, however, it’s different, I can’t talk about a thunderbolt. But something between us was born. Accomplice to the lack of scale in the process (how does it feel as Nigella Lawson? Goodbye scale and welcome cups!), its being light with just few eggs and without butter, its softness, the easy and speedy way of method and the right proportion of bittersweet, we could may have a bright future together, why not. If they are roses, they will bloom in short (I’ll keep you updated, I promise you).

INGREDIENTS

CHOCOLATE CAKE

• 3 eggs
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 cup of corn oil
• 1 cup of plain yogurt
• 1 + ½ cups of plain flour
• ½ cup of cornstarch
• 1 cup of cocoa powder
• 3 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 pinch of salt

P.S .: 1 cup = 1 cup of yogurt (125ml)

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

• 150 gr. of dark chocolate (from 50% to 70%)
• 150 gr. of fresh cream
• 20 gr. of butter

Mulberries q.s.

Here you can find the salty toffee recipe

Matching soundtrack: Romeo and Juliet – Radiohead

“There seems a foolhardy idea to open a pastry shop just in the period of Lent?
Oh but I will not open a pastry shop …
And what is it then … !?
It’s a surprise…” Chocolat By Lasse Hallström

PROCESS

Let’s break 3 whole eggs into a bowl, adding to a pinch of salt. Now add the sugar and beat untill stiff, or anyway until you’ll get the classic clear and fluffy mixture. Now it’s time to add the oil and incorporate the eggs with the help of whips (or, if you’re equipped with a food processor. In this case it’s really a breeze); it’s now the turn of yogurt: always with a whisk, incorporate it to the mix.

Blended all the liquid ingredients, we can pass to the powders. Let’s sift together the flour, the cornstarch, the cocoa and baking powder. Mix all together – this time with a wooden spoon – gently from bottom to top, being careful not to dismantle the whipped mass. Well you guys, the making of our cake is already over. Grease a springform pan (diameter of 24 cm) and pour the mixture there. 45 minutes at 180° C and it’s baked!

The cake itself is enough to let you eat it without insisting but I assure you that with the dark chocolate frosting (easily prepared boiling the cream, turning off the heat, melting inside the chocolate chips and adding the butter) and with salty caramel toffee this cake becomes awesome. You just have to leave the cake to cool and then, with a toothpick, prick the surface. Now make a beautiful thing: heat the toffee to make it liquid, and pour it over the cake to let it penetrates inside holes. Each bite is a surprise. You can therefore frosting and … just eat it.

Photography: Sara Cartelli.
© Immagini The Eat Culture.