reine de saba avec glaçage au chocolat

Mmmmmmm. Chocolate. One of life's greatest pleasures.

I had to put this one up, because it's kind of like a follow-up to my previous post on the boeuf bourguignon. Long story short, after watching Julie & Julia for the first time two summers ago, I became infatuated with this cake. Ever since seeing it with all its chocolate glory on the big screen, I knew I had to try it. So, I figured, when better than to bake it on Mrs. Child's birthday?

It served as dessert to the bourguignon. And boy, was it delicious.

Unlike the bourguignon, this turned out to be a much more complicated recipe than I originally anticipated. The deceptive simplicity, the surprisingly irritable amount of time it takes for a seemingly easy cake, the figurative slap in the face when you realize you have to stiffen egg whites and have to wash out your stand-mixer's bowl because you didn't read the entire recipe ahead of time. Curse you, Julia! It was worth the pain, though.

Reine de Saba avec Glaçage au Chocolat

For the cake, you’ll need:

• 4 oz semisweet chocolate, melted with 2 tbsp rum or coffee
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 3 egg whites
• pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2/3 cup pulverized almonds
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 cup cake flour

For the ganache, you'll need:

• 2 oz semisweet chocolate
• 2 tbsp coffee or rum
• 5 tbsp butter 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease an 8-inch round cake pan.

Melt chocolate and coffee or rum in a bowl. You can either microwave [which is what I did out of sheer laziness], or melt over a pan of hot water. Meanwhile, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Add egg yolks and beat until incorporated. Set aside.

In another bowl, beat egg whites and salt until soft peaks form. Sprinkle sugar over top and beat until stiff peaks form.

Once chocolate mixture has cooled, blend it into the butter and sugar mixture. Stir in pulverized almonds and almond extract. [note: I used slivered almonds and pulverized them in a food processor - if you do this, sprinkle a tsp of sugar in the processor beforehand, and this will prevent the almonds from becoming pasty!].

Gently fold in 1/4 of the egg white mixture to lighten the batter. Sift cake flour. Fold 1/3 of the remaining egg whites into the batter, and alternate with 1/3 of the cake flour, until all ingredients are fully incorporated. Pour the batter into the 8-inch pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. The edges of the cake should be baked so that a toothpick comes out clean, but the center of the cake should be slightly undercooked, so that a toothpick comes out oily.

Once cake has baked, let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Then, run a knife along the edges of the cake and invert the cake onto a wire rack. Let it cool completely before frosting, 1-2 hours.

To prepare the ganache, melt chocolate and rum or coffee in a bowl until shiny. Add butter, one tablespoon at a time, until fully blended. Place bowl in an icebath and continue stirring the ganache until it turns to spreading consistency. Frost all over cake. Garnish cake with sliced almonds, if desired.

It's pretty delicious, not going to lie. Tastes as good as it looks.
And in my opinion, I think it looks pretty damn tasty.

There are only maybe one or two more recipes I'm going to transfer over from the old blog. And then it'll just be dishes I make here at the apartment. In fact, I should have quite a few new recipes up soon from the upcoming weekend.

Small dinner get-together tomorrow. Very excited. Hopefully will be somewhat successful.
I'll keep you posted. But for now, Arrested Development.