Tonight Isn't As Much Fun Anymore

I'm just feeling whiny because I'm not going to see my man this weekend.

The flourless cake is well on its way to being complete.

I need to remember that I cannot bake a cake and have a deep conversation with someone. My dear friend Annmarie called from Spain as I was beating the crap out of the eggs and so I spent time talking to her instead of getting the cake mixed and into the oven without deflating the eggs too much. Then after I put the cake in the oven I realised I forgot the cheesecake layer!! The cheesecake batter was sitting all nice and pretty off to the side, totally neglected. (Kind of how I feel right now....not really, just being dramatic.) So instead of having a layer of cheesecake in the middle, there's a layer of cheesecake on top. Oh well.

I substituted Grand Marnier for the lemon juice in the cheesecake. The uncooked batter didn't have a strong Grand Marnier taste to it, but you could tell there was a little somethin somethin in the background. We'll see how it turns out cooked.

How it turned out cooked:

Tasty. I thought the Grand Marnier was noticable, but faint. The problem was that the cheesecake didn't get to firm up like it wanted to. It would have liked 24 hours in the refrigerator, which I didn't really understand. So when I unmolded the cake after 3 hours and inverted it onto a plate, I noticed that the cheesecake layer started sagging and oozing. Oops. Quickly I reinverted it and reapplied all the cheesecake that had stuck to the plate. So it was more like a cheesecakey frosting. Which isn't a bad thing. It spooged a bit down the sides of the cake as I drove over to the party. I kept my cool, unlike the last time I made a birthday cake for the same group of people and the cake totally fell apart on the drive over which completely unhinged me. I was totally, dramatically pissed off. However, this time--no problem!

I thought the raspberry sauce was a little too strong for the cake, but maybe that's because I dumped a lot of it right on top of my slice. Maybe a little bit on the side would have been better.

I used 200 g Lindt extra bittersweet and 254 g Scharffenberger 70% this time. The Scharffenberger chocolate seems to have more of a cocoa flavor compared to Lindt. Lindt has this wonderful caramel undertone. Schaffenberger chocolate also tends to make a drier torte, go figure.

Have I mentioned how easy this cake is? You just need the chocolate, 2 sticks of butter and 6 eggs. That's it. You melt the chocolate and the butter in a double boiler. You put the eggs over simmering water and beat/whisk the shit out of them until they are warm to the touch. Once warmed, you take them off the stove and continue to beat them until they triple in volume. Then you fold half of the eggs into the chocolate/butter. Then you incorporate the rest of the eggs, scrape into a 8 in springform, tuck it into a water bath, and bake at 425 for ten minutes. You let the cake cool at room temp for 45 minutes, then chill it for 3 hours. Before serving you should bring the cake back up to room temperature and that's it. Crazy easy.

Even though my night didn't turn out as planned, I still enjoyed myself immensely, and I got to eat a tasty braised pork shoulder. So I'll quit my whining, waah wahhh waaaaaah.

Consolation prize: I have a nice little 7 inch cheesecake in my refrigerator (getting its 24 hour chill time). It's not the same as cuddling with the Stinky, but it'll do.