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!

Daring Bakers: Tuiles

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Baking Soda and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf.
They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

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This is my first month as a Daring Baker! I've seen this around the blogosphere and thought this would be so much fun! Once I qualify, I'll be listed as an Alternative Baker as all my recipes will be Dairy-free, Egg-free and Peanut-free due to my son's allergies.

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The original recipe was taken from a book called “The Chocolate Book”, written by female Dutch Master chef Angélique Schmeinck.

I halved the recipe and converted it to Dairy-Free and Egg-free. My final recipe follows:

1/8 c dairy free margarine, softened
1/4 c confectioner's sugar, sifted
slightly less than 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp unsweetened applesauce
1/4 c all purposed, unbleached flour

I also sprinkled blue sugar crystals on one prior to baking, just to see how it would turn out.



We were also instructed to pair these cookies with something light. I sprinkled on some powdered sugar and added a thin slice of lemon including the rind. Then I made some coconut "whip-cream" (recipe from GO DAIRY FREE). I think a raspberry on top would have finished it off nicely, but I'm to cheap to buy them just for presentation! LOL!


My husband and boys LOVED these! In fact, Nathan requested "star cookies" just the other day!

I'm not much of a photographer, but these cookies were good and I'll certainly be making them again!