My Family Gap Year: July 2012

Tuesday, 24 July 2012

To good friends and new adventures - Chocolate torte with raspberries

Flourless Chocolate Torte with Raspberries
By Ross Burden, in 'This is my favourite' The BBC Children in Need Appeal recipe book 2006

Serves 8; Preparation time: 25minutes; Cooking time: 25 minutes

Ingredients: 300g chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids), 200g butter, 4 eggs, 200g caster sugar.

To garnish: creme fraiche, 300g raspberries, fresh or frozen, 50g caster sugar

Method:
1. Melt 100g of the chocolate over water and pour over a robust tray (e.g. the back of a clean roasting tray and allow to cool.
2. Add the rest of the chocolate and the butter into the same bowl and allow to melt and mix. Stir well.
3. Separate the eggs and beat 100g of sugar into each bowl, making the whites into soft peaks. Beat the yolk mixture into the chocolate and butter mixture, beat in half of the whites and then fold the rest of the whites into the mixture.
4. Grease and dust with cocoa, a 20cm cake tin. A greased paper disk underneath is a great idea. Bake at 160degrees C for about 25minutes; the centre should just wobble. Allow it to cool and turn out upside down. If it has soufleed, press gently.
5. Serve warm with raspberries warmed with the sugar until it's dissolved; and the creme fraiche. Use the 100g of cooled chocolate broken into chards for decoration or to crumble over the top.

Notes from Jo: skip step one, just grate 100g of chocolate over the baked cake when the cake has cooled; sprinkle the raspberries with the caster sugar and keep at room temperature - a very short time in the microwave warms them well and dissolves the sugar very well. The cake always souflees and then collapses and you always think it is a gooey mess, don't panic.

Enjoy the cake and your new adventures.

(The recipe is all over the internet, for instance http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/marketing_material/chocolate_torte_recipe.pdf)

Friday, 20 July 2012

Nerves

We are all feeling a little unsettled, last day of school yesterday - lots of good byes and cards. We're not feeling quite ready yet. I think the summer sun which has finally arrived will put us in the right frame of mind.