Obliviate!

In the Harry Potter books, Obliviate was a spell that would erase the memory of the victim. It played quite a significant role in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, both funny and sad. I would hope, were I ever to find myself facing down the Obliviate charm, the memory of these little truffle cakes would be spared.

November 6, 2009
Name of cakes: Baby Chocolate Oblivions
Occasion: Heavenly Cake Bakers
Constituents: Chocolate. Sugar. Eggs. Butter. Good Times.

This is my first bake-along with the Heavenly Cake Bakers. I have been enjoying Marie's (aka BBC's) adventures as she bakes her way through Rose Levy Beranbaum's new cookbook Rose's Heavenly Cakes. Recently she invited others to join her and the Heavenly Cake Bakers was born.

These Baby Oblivions are simply the Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte from The Cake Bible repurposed as cute little individual servings. I have no complaints about that. This cake has always been a delicious and decadent hit!

The only real difference between the two recipes, is that the Babies use a higher percentage chocolate, and thus, a little bit of sugar has been added. I will confess that most of the time I bake the Torte I've used a darker chocolate (62%-ish) without adding sugar and it has been freakishly good. So initially I wasn't planning on adding the 3 tablespoons of sugar, but then things went a little off script.

First off, I wasn't going to buy a silicone cupcake pan as I have a bunch of silicone cupcake cups. I figured I could use the cups inside my metal cupcake tin, skip the metal rack (since I guessed it was to stablise the silicone pan), and not have to buy any new bakeware this week. Then of course I couldn't find my cupcake tin. What the fudge, people? Have any of you seen my cupcake tin? Let me know.

I bought a new metal cupcake tin, came home and turned on the oven. I pulled down my favorite dark chocolate, and noticed that I didn't have a full pound. So I pulled down my favorite semi sweet chocolate, and noticed that box was almost empty. Combined I was still in need of 100 grams, and I was resolved not to leave the house again. I searched my pantry, and found my old roommate had left behind a unsweetened baking bar. So my Babies have an approximate percentage breakdown as follows: 75% dark chocolate, 20% semi sweet chocolate, and 5% unsweetened chocolate. I added a little more than the 3 tablespoons sugar called for just in case.

The cupcake tin fit in my 12x18 pan, and I actually have a 9x13 pan and it fit nicely on top of the cupcake tin. I was worried about that. I also bah-humbugged the need for silicone gloves (if I was using the silicone pan and the wire rack I believe it would have been absolutely necessary). Luckily there were no mishaps.

Hey, did anyone else have a leftover batter? I had enough to fill a little ramekin which I baked in my toaster oven. All the Babies, including the rogue ramekin, are currently chilling in the refrigerator. I am totally having that rogue for breakfast tomorrow. (Yeah, I said it. Breakfast.)

(tomorrow)
The silicone cups released the Babies easily and nicely, hooray! The extra batter that I baked in the ramekin took a lot more coaxing, but it finally slid out without leaving too much behind. I whipped up some cream and my roommate and I dug in.

Mmmm. So good. So soft, so creamy, so chocolaty! And so freakin rich! Annmarie couldn't even finish her little Oblivion Baby, and the ramekin full of Oblivion I'm trying to eat is winning. I didn't make the raspberry puree this time around which is a bummer. The whipped cream is a wonderful companion but (in my opinion) these Babies need a raspberry chaperone as well. I'm sure I have some in the freezer! I guess the Obliviate charm wouldn't be such a bad thing after all; I'd be able to finish that ramekin. (Don't worry, I finished it later on in the day. Everything's gonna be allll-right.)

Oblivion Torte, previously.