Chocolate with Francois: Chocolate Pudding Cake

This month Peggy of Pantry Revisited chose the recipe from Chocolate with Francois. A good FANTASTIC pick.

I knew Peggy wouldn’t opt for one of Francois 2 week sweat inducing recipes. Believe me! They’re in that book! He’s amazing! And because I knew it was going to be one of the more basic recipes, I was really looking forward to this interesting cake. It WAS easy and I STILL messed it up. But… my screw up was a success!

Visit Peggy’s site for the original recipe. If however, you want the “screw” up version…read on.

Makes 1 9” layer cake

• 1 cup flour
• 6 oz unsalted butter – room temp
• 6 oz semi-sweet chocolate
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 ½ cups heavy cream
• 1 container of Fruit Dip – Dark Chocolate (What get’s me about this dip, is that it promotes “0% Trans Fat”. Seriously – the sugar content in that stuff trumps trans fat! But it was good on this cake

and it looked DE-VINE!)

• 1 mixture of Almond Cake Wash

Chocolate mousse for filling – about 1 ½ cups

Preheat oven to 400 F. Spray 2 9” cake pans with non-stick BAKING spray (the kind with flour in it).

Boil the butter then add the chocolate and stir until the chocolate melts and mixture is smooth. Set aside.

In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar and eggs. Add the chocolate. When mixed, add the cream. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 15 minutes. *Cover cake with aluminum foil if it rises too much. Lower temp. to 350 F and bake another 12 – 15 minutes or until knife inserted in middle comes out clean. Let cool.

NOW BE FOREWARNED! I over baked the cake and had to make a wash to moisten it:

Almond Wash for Cake:

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup water
• 1 TBS Almond Extract

Bring sugar/water to a boil and continue to boil the sugar and water for 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Allow to cool for 5 minutes and add the almond extract.

When the cake has cooled, place first layer on plate and slice it to make it even on top. Brush on some wash until cake seems moistened. Add the chocolate mousse filling. Place in the fridge or freezer for 30 minutes. Put the top layer on the cake and cut to make even. Brush on the wash to moisten.

Heat the chocolate fruit dip slightly, not so it’s hot but just so it flows. Now pour over the cake.

This cake was so good, Ted had a dream about it. He dreamt he snuck downstairs in the middle of the night and I came around the corner and caught him with his hands and face covered in chocolate cake. That’s one good cake to dream about!

Enjoy!