Flourless Chocolate Cake

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

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This month's Daring Baker's Challenge was a bit of a stretch for me. The original flourless cake recipe they gave us had 5 eggs in it! I almost opted out, until a recipe link was posted for a flourless chocolate cake that used black eyed peas and tofu!


I used her recipe, and received similar results... an extremely moist cake with a sunken middle.


Granted this isn't a recipe I would normally choose and probably won't make again, but it was a challenge and I worked with some ingredients I wouldn't normally pair together. As for taste, I could certainly taste the black eyed peas and although I do like BEP's, I'd rather have them as a side dish than a dessert. :)

Now, my BEP-loving son (who will drink the BEP juice!) enjoyed the crusty outside of the cake; he didn't like the moist inside.

As a secondary part of the challenge, we were to pair it with homemade whipped topping, ice cream, or a fruit puree. I chose a berry fruit sorbet... YUM!

Dairy Free Sorbet

I adapted this recipe from The Minimalist.


1 cup frozen fruit (I used a combo of black berry, blue berry, and raspberry)
2 Tbsp white sugar
3 Tbsp Silk vanilla creamer
4 - 5 Tbsp water

Put the first three ingredients in your food processor and pulse to break up the frozen fruit. Add water slowly so it stays in a sorbet consistency and doesn't turn into a smoothie.

The boys and I ate this immediately, so I haven't experimented with putting it back in the freezer for a later time... if you try to, let me know how it goes!

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Oven Fries

I have tried many ways of cooking these and finally decided on one I like... crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside and oh so yummy! :)

Ingredients

sweet potatoes (scrubbed or peeled)
coconut oil, melted
salt
pepper


Preheat oven to 400F.

Cut the sweet potatoes into wedges about 2 -3 inches long. Place on a cookie sheet.

You'll need just enough melted coconut oil to coat the potatoes. Pour the coconut oil over the potatoes and toss to coat. Generously salt & pepper; toss again.

Arrange wedges on the cookie sheet so that they are not touching and that one of the cut edges is face down.

Bake until cut side of the sweet potatoes touching the baking sheet is crusty and golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove baking sheet from oven and carefully turn sweet potatoes with a thin metal spatula. Bake until the second cut side of the wedge now touching the pan is golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Use the metal spatula to transfer the sweet potatoes to a platter and serve the oven-fried potatoes immediately.

adapted from Perfect Vegetables