Signature Dish of Joseph Littleshoes
Catalan (Chocolate) Cake
If you're not making a children's b'day cake here's a
recipe for a rather unusual but very delicious
chocolate cake. As with anything chocolate, the
better the chocolate the better the finished
product. Its name in Catalan means "perfect little
spanish cake". The following recipe is for a 5 x 5
inch pan, double it for a larger amount of cake
but keep them small as they tend to not have the
solidity of regular cakes and if too large will
easily break up. However several small cakes can
be put together horizontally or vertically and
frosted. - JL
Ingredients
1 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 cup ruby port (a good porto, not something
cheap)
1 and 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate (10 ounces)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
1/3 cup toasted and ground hazelnuts
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons cocoa powder (this
is as the recipe is written I just use 3
tablespoons cocoa powder)
1 jumbo egg
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C)
- grease and flour a 5x5 inch baking pan
- in a small heavy saucepan over medium high
heat, reduce the port to 3 tablespoons (takes 10
to 15 minutes)
- in another small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup
of the semi sweet chocolate with the butter and
stir over low heat until melted; do not let the
mixture burn. remove from the heat and cool
slightly. stir in 2 tablespoons of the port, the
ground hazelnuts, the the cocoa powder and the
tablespoon of flour. set aside.
- in a medium sized bowl, beat the egg and
sugar with an electric mixer until tripled in
volume, about 5 minutes.
- Fold the egg mixture into the chocolate
mixture thoroughly, and pour into the prepared
pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a
toothpick inserted in the centre comes out with
moist crumbs. Place the pan on a wire rack to
fool for 5 minutes. run a knife around the sides
to loosen. Continue to cool for 1 hour, then
invert the pan onto a serving plate.
- In a small heavy sauce pan over very low
heat. melt the remaining 3/4 cup of semisweet
chocolate. Stir in the remaining port. and add the
vanilla and corn syrup. Remove from the heat and
cool until the icing reaches a good spreading
consistency. Spread the icing over the sides and
top of the cake.
Fresh raspberries and whipped cream are very nice
to pile on top of this small cake.