Mini Flourless Chocolate Cakes

Happy Monday everyone!  Sorry it has taken me so long to get this post up, but here it is...better late than never, right ?!?! 

When I was looking through desserts to make for Passover this year I came across several different recipes for Flourless Chocolate Cake, I have made this before though it was so long ago I honestly can not tell you what it tasted like...taking a slight chance I guess but I like pretty much anything with chocolate so I didn't figure it could be too bad :) !!!  I had the cutest mini bundt pans that I had bought at an antique store about three years ago that I had yet to use and decided that these cakes would be even better (at least in presentation :) !) if I made them in these pans! 



LOVE, Love, love these mini bundt pans!!!

 I decided on this recipe I found on Epicurious, though I made white chocolate gnache for half of them (which ended up more like a glaze) and a dark chocolate gnache for the other half.  They seemed to be enjoyed equally, though I have to admit I never tried the white chocolate.  The recipe says it makes one 8 in cake, I got about 6 mini cakes per batch (one downside of only having 4 mini pans and making 18 cakes...it was a little time consuming!). On the cakes with the white chocolate I added a raspberry and the dark chocolate cakes were topped with candied orange peel (you might remember these from a couple of weeks ago when I burnt the first batch as well as my finger tips...the second batch turned out much better!).

Recipe: 8 in cake

4 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened)

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter

3/4 cup sugar

3 large eggs

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375°F and butter an 8-inch round baking pan. Line bottom with a round of wax paper and butter paper (I used spray due to the type of pan I was using).

Chop chocolate into small pieces. In a double boiler or metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water melt chocolate with butter, stirring, until smooth. Remove top of double boiler or bowl from heat and whisk sugar into chocolate mixture. Add eggs and whisk well. Sift 1/2 cup cocoa powder over chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined. Pour batter into pan and bake in middle of oven 25 minutes, or until top has formed a thin crust (the small pans needed to cook for pretty close to this amount of time as well). Cool cake in pan on a rack 5 minutes and invert onto a serving plate.

White Chocolate Gnache:

Ingredients

6 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped, use best-quality

1/4 cup heavy cream

Dark Chocolate Gnache:

Ingredients

9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup heavy cream

 

Directions:

1 Place finely chopped chocolate in small heatproof bowl.

2 Set over warm water on low heat (water should not touch bottom of bowl).

3 Stir very frequently until almost melted. Remove from heat and hot water; stir until smooth, pressing out any lumps with back of spoon or a rubber spatula.

4 In small saucepan over low heat, heat cream just to a simmer, stirring frequently.

5 Remove from heat; all at once, add about two-thirds of hot cream to melted white chocolate.

6 Gently stir to incorporate, then beat or whisk until smooth, scraping bowl as necessary with rubber spatula.

7 Gradually stir in remaining cream

 

I am hoping to have a few posts this week, have some fun projects I am working on for the house from Tip Junkie (AMAZING site!!!!), this is also the week that I am making the 16 dozen macarons...sounds like a lot of coffee and not a lot of sleep :) !!!  Have a great week, thanks for stopping by!!