I just have to give you this recipe of a delicious double chocolate cake that I learned and tried out on Sunday. Sunday, around lunch time, I was watching the news on an Italian TV channel and during the news there was a cook that gave the recipe of a cake that was to be cooked in microwave oven. It sounded very interesting because the cooking time was only 8 minutes. I didn't write down the recipe, nor did the cook give a real recipe with measurements of the ingredients. I only watched what he did. When I learned that my in-laws would pay a visit to us later that day, and that it was our wedding anniversary I decided to bake this cake so that we could celebrate our 7 years of marriage with our visitors in the afternoon. I need to warn you: if you are not used to improvising and/or measuring the ingredients 'with your eyes' rather then liters/cups and stuff, don't read it ;-) Oh, one more thing: your microwave oven should have the crisp function. Here it goes:
Put butter and bitter chocolate pieces in a bowl that can go in the microwave and melt at 160 watts for 2 minutes. I didn't have bitter chocolate at home, so I skipped that ingredient. If they do not melt thoroughly in 2 minutes, leave them a bit longer at the same power. In a big bowl whisk (don't use a hand blender) 4 eggs and sugar for about 1 minute. I added about one and a half 'small water glass' of sugar, though I usually use not that much sugar in my cakes I added that extra half a glass since I didn't have the chocolate which would have contributed to the sugar content of the cake. Add in a pinch of salt, baking powder, dark cacao powder, a little bit of all purpose flour and mix well. I used one small water glass of flour. Mix in some milk. I didn't measure my milk, just poured in from the bottle as much as I thought was necessary. Finally add the melted butter and chocolate in the batter. The result will be not thick and not excessively liquid. One important last-minute ingredient: fresh basil leaves. Wash some fresh basil leaves and add the shredded basil into the batter. Grease the crisp tray of your microwave oven and cover it with flour as well. Pour in the batter and bake using the crisp function for 8 minutes. Your cake is ready in circa 15 minutes, preparation time included. You can serve it with whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream, garnished with fresh basil leaves. I am planning to bake it again using bitter chocolate with chilly, mmmmm...
Buon appetito!
5 comments:
Kuzencim,oncelikle 7.yil icin tebrikler;umarim daha coooook yillar kutlarsiniz..,Gabrielle ile:)Fakat bilirsin ben feslegeni cok severim tazesini kurusunu ama kekde hic denememistim;dogrusu canim tatli cekti sabah sabah;tatli krizimi tatliya baglamak icin bizim odaciyi danette almaya yolladim;cukulatalisi olsun ama dedim;dr.hanimin derdi ne ki diye dusundugunden eminim;cunku benim aliskanliklarim disinda bir davranis yaptigim.Nereden bilsinler kuzen gene dokturmus sabah sabah....Optum canim,nice mutlu yillar.................
Sabah sabah cok guldurdun beni Meloscum yaaa :-) Afiyet olsun danetten, ama benim kekim gibi olamaz, gel de esasini yedireyim sana ;-)
This case is a very intriguing cake, especially at this time of year when basil is abundant. I don't read Turkish, so couldn't tell what previous comments were, and I didn't want to try many random ways of preparing this. But I did post your URL on chowhound.com, a well-visited US-based food/resaurant site (see http://www.chowhound.com/topics/432214) to see whether anyone comes up with some good ideas.
Claire @ http://culinary-colorado.blogspot.com.
Oops. I meant to write, "This is a very intriguing cake...."
My coffee hasn't taken effect yet!
Dear ClaireWalter, don't worry, the former comments have nothing to do with the cake recipe :-)
I saw your posting at the address you have given and the 3 comments following it. First of all basil and chocolate do go well together, why not? I guess most of you have tasted mint-chocolate, no? In many recipes, mint can be replaced by basil (like in some vegetable dishes that include squash or eggplant and mint; check out my eggplant recipe somewhere on this blog).
The 'crisp' function in microwave ovens is for making 'crispy' dishes, like a pizza for instance. My microwave oven is one of the latest models (here in Europe at least) of Whirlpool, but also earlier models of microwaves from Whirlpool have this function, I guess you can find similar functions in other makes as well. To use the crisp function there is a special tray (that comes with the microwave oven) and only this tray can be used under this function for cooking.
I have baked this cake, twice. I know the amounts of the ingredients are not given exactly, but neither did the cook on TV gave the amounts. For people that are used to baking and that have much practice with their own utensils it shouldn't be difficult to decide how much to use of which ingredient. I used 4 eggs in my version of the cake because my oven's capacity, hence its crisp tray, is big, but in a smaller microwave oven maybe 3 eggs would suffice. To be more precise with the amounts, I can say: use a bar of bitter chocolate (70 percent cacao, more or less, and yes, of course the chocolate has also sugar inside; one of the comments on that website was about the sugar content if I am not mistaken), a piece of butter as big as two matchboxes, 100ml of milk, 250cc of sugar, 200cc of flour, 4 tablespoons of dark cacao powder, a hand-full of basil leaves... The result of this recipe is definitely delicious, you don't even feel that there is basil in it; it is just to give a slight smell to the cake, that's all. The first time I made it, as is stated in the post, I used only cacao powder, no chocolate bar, and the cake was extremely soft and fluffy. In the second version I added also the chocolate and it was quite soft again but not that fluffy, a bit 'heavier' you can say. But they were both delicious. It can easily be used as the base of a cream cake, wet with milk and chocolate cream on the top, garnished with basil leaves..
When it comes to the use of a microwave oven for baking (comment of danna).. Well, I guess Americans are used to using the microwave for 'throwing in' frozen food. Actually microwave ovens are 'ovens' that can be used for 'cooking/baking', not only warming and de-freezing stuff.
I hope you try this cake one day ;-)
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