Gotta Have Chocolate: Enter our Prize Giveaway!
It’s that time of year when the weather is changing and I either love it or hate it, depending on what the summer was like. Mornings are crisp and sunny with dew shimmering on the grass. Leaves start turning brown and the night draws in faster than you want. The alarm clock rings and you open your eyes no longer to sunlight but to dawn’s bare beginnings. Windows are drawn closer; doors are shut more often. It’s time for chocolate!
Here then is my absolute favourite recipe for chocolate cake which was brought to my attention by my French friend Coralie, and which appeared in a lavender version in my very first blog post over a year ago.
Enter our Birthday Giveaway to Win a Prize!
And speaking of which, Why Is There Air had its first birthday this summer and to celebrate, Madame Thermomix is giving away to a lucky reader a lovely silicone mini muffin mould which is perfect for making bite-sized versions of my favourite chocolate cake.
To enter, simply tell us what you do with chocolate in your Thermomix, mentioning both the words Thermomix and chocolate in your comment.
Get your prize here!
All entries must be received by midnight British Summer Time on Sunday 10th October 2011.
Winner will be chosen at random from all comments mentioning both Thermomix and chocolate.
So get your Thermomix melting at 37°, get your thinking cap on and post your comments in the form at the bottom of the page by clicking here!
Madame Thermomix’s Favourite Chocolate Cake
The original recipe for this cake is based on “My Daughters’ Chocolate Cake” by Gilles Choukroun. The Thermomix technique is based on the Chocolate Mousse recipe in Fast and Easy Cooking by Janie Turner. It’s so easy, it’s a great after-school recipe to make with the kids. Serves 6 big pieces or makes about 24 individual mini cakes.
Ingredients
180 g granulated sugar
200 g good-quality dark chocolate, broken into pieces
150 g butter at room temp and more for greasing the tin
4 eggs, separated
75 g plain flour
For toppings, choose from
white or dark chocolate
icing sugar
fresh berries or sliced fruit
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200° C. Grease the bottom and sides of a 10-inch cake tin and line the bottom with baking paper/waxed paper. (The best type for this cake is a tin with a removable bottom; it makes it easier to serve.)
- Place a bowl or a jug on top of the Thermomix, set the weighing scales to zero and weigh in the sugar. Set aside.
- Grate the chocolate pieces 15 seconds/Speed 8.
- Scrape down the sides of the Thermomix bowl with the spatula. Add the butter and heat 3 minutes/37° C/Speed 2. (Note: 37° C is the perfect temperature for melting and tempering chocolate and Britain’s foremost chocolatiers use the Thermomix daily.)
- Add the flour and egg yolks and mix 15 seconds/Speed 4. Scrape out the mixture into a large mixing bowl.
- Use your second Thermomix bowl if you have one, or else wash the Thermomix bowl, lid and Butterfly whisk with hot soapy water; rinse and dry thoroughly. They must be grease-free to properly whisk the egg whites. Insert the Butterfly whisk and add the egg whites to the bowl. Whisk 2 to 3 minutes/37° C/Speed 3½/Measuring Cup OFF. While whisking, gradually add the sugar through the hole in the lid. Check the egg whites frequently to ensure you do not over whisk them or you will get marshmallow!
- Gently fold 1/3 of the whisked egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then mix in the rest. Do not over mix; it’s the air that makes the cake rise.
- Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin. Bake approximately 30 minutes; check after 20 minutes or so to ensure it is not over done. This cake is best when it is still slightly gooey in the centre! Cool on a wire rack and, if you used a tin with a removable bottom, remove the cake from the tin to serve. Sprinkle with powdered/icing sugar, drizzle with melted chocolate (white or dark), or garnish with fresh berries.
Serve warm or at room temperature, with a cup of coffee or tea, a glass of ruby port, or even just a good red wine. The tannins in red wine help dissolve the cocoa fats and they taste really good together.
Bon appétit !
That’s another great thing about Thermomix: it lets you go beyond your usual boundaries and make things you’d never have dared (or bothered) to make before. Thank you, Thermomix!
I’m drooling over my keyboard right now, Erica, thanks!
It is a brilliant recipe, Shannon, and thanks again for spotting the absence of flour in the recipe 😉
Wow, big yum for your chocolate ice cream recipe, Zan! And I couldn’t agree more about how easy it is to melt chocolate in the Thermomix. My kind of logic dictates that because Thermomix’s 37°C temperature setting is perfect for melting chocolate and because body temperature is 37°C, therefore chocolate is good for the body 🙂
We all love chocolate cake in the Thermomix, I think! So fast and easy!
Great list of chocolatey things to do with Thermomix, Meggy. Thanks! Love that chocolate custard 😉
And we all hope you get your Thermomix soon, Keely!
Your idea is another great example of how with Thermomix there’s no waste, Ceejay! Leftovers are never a problem, they can always be transformed with Thermomix!
Chocolate rice pudding? OMG I’ll have to try it, it sounds too delish! Many thanks for this yummy idea.
“A day that involves chocolate and Thermomix is a day well spent!” You’ve said it all, Jo!
I love making chocolate ganache in my thermomix. So easy and delicious, I’d never made it until I got my tmx.
Oops! I forgot to write the flour in the recipe method so thanks so much for pointing that out 😉 Add the flour with the egg yolks and mix into the chocolate mixture. Cheers for that!
Sorry, I was out and about when I wrote the comment above. Here is the recipe 🙂
Instant Chocolate Cake
185g butter
2 tsp vanilla essence
330g castor sugar
3 eggs
310g self-raising flour
50g cocoa
250g water
Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and flour a 22cm round cake tin. Place all ingredients in TM bowl and mix on speed 5-6 for 10-20 secs or until smooth (colour and consistency). Bake for 1 and 1/2 hrs or until cooked. Too easy!
I love anything to do with chocolate and the thermomix has made it 10 times easier! The above recipe looks delicious…..but when does the flour go in? Maybe I am blind but I can’t see it. Looks very lush though – I will have to try it.
Probably my favourite isn’t a recipe but the ease of melting and mixing chocolate in the tmx, no slaving over a double burner and stirring.
Guess my fav choc recipe is melt chocolate, add cream, milk (300 mls each), 2/3 cup fo sugar and cook for a further 10 mins. Cool and put in your icecream maker for the best choc icecream.An egg makes it even better.
Just the plain old favourite for me – chocolate cake – whips it up in minutes & is absolutely fool proof! (& tastes AWESOME!)
I love to make chocolate ganache and chocolate custard. I love love love how quick and easy the custard is and the texture is so creamy and smooth. its too easy I pretty much thermomix my custard every second night.
Chocolate buttercream icing – thermomixing a block of copha as if it was soft butter! was magic
I would love to be able to make also sorts of chocolate treats in a thermomix when I get one.
Melting organic chocolate in my Thermomix for dipping pretzels is one of my favourite pastimes right now! It’s then super easy to add milk to the leftovers and heat gently to make hot chocolate for the kids! Easy to clean Thermomix!
Tonight I made chocolate custard in my thermomix then poured it over rice and baked it, to create the best chocolate rice pudding ever 🙂
I love making my own raw chocolate in my Thermomix – it’s the best!! Then there’s my Thermomix hot chocolate made on cashew milk (divine!), flourless chocolate espresso cake, flourless hazelnut brownies, chocolate almond smoothie, chocolate banana ice-cream, chocolate orange sorbet, chocolate pecan self saucing pudding, chocolate filled steamed buns with cherry sauce, flourless chocolate brownie cookies… A day that involves chocolate and Thermomix is a day well spent! 😀
Ooh, Erica, your Aunt’s instant chocolate cake recipe sounds so fast and easy! Could you be tempted to part with the ingredients and proportions, please, please, please??
Hmmm…chocolate and thermomix… Where do I start?! My thermomix is fabulous for chopping chocolate to stir through muffin or brownie mix, melting chocolate and butter for brownies, heating chocolate and cream to make ganache and for making my Aunt’s instant chocolate cake recipe (place all ingredients in a bowl, mix on speed 5-6 for 10-20 secs or until smooth, then bake). Too easy!
Wow, Victoria, I like the sound of your Thermomix chocolate cake – fast and easy! Thanks very much for sharing that recipe and I shall make it soon 😉
This is an easy cake made with biscuits and chocolate in the thermomix. Place 150 gr of chocolate (broken in pieces) in the thermomix, 4-5 seconds speed 5 and reserve. Place the whole packet of biscuit (tea biscuits) in progressive speed 5-10 for about 15 seconds until is all fine powder. Add 100 gr of butter at room temperature, 75 gr of sugar, 3 eggs and 2 tsp of baking powder and mix at speed 7 until an homogeneous mixture is achieved. Finally add the chocolate with the spatula.
Placed the mixture in a prepared tin and baked in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.
That’s brilliant, James! I hadn’t thought of frothing it up before but what a super idea. Here’s the UK Thermomix recipe for hot chocolate you might like to try, too: Checklist for a Snowy Day
Thanks for your comment and good luck in the Prize Giveaway!
Hot Chocolate in the Thermomix ! 125ml thick cream, 125ml milk, 100g dark chocolate. Throw it all in for 4-5 min, 80 deg, speed 4. Give it a real whiz for the last 15-20 sec at speed 7 or 8 to froth. Kids love Hot Chocolate! You can also substitute the choc for drinking choc powder