I hate NY weather! :(((.. It has been overcast, windy, chilly, gloomy and drippy for two days now and that is enough to sap all the cheerfulness out of a person. I mean, its supposed to have been Spring, for God's sake. It was a month late in coming to start with, and now, after a brief showing of 3 days, wants to go off on a vacation again, leaving behind this depressing substitute and no forwarding address! What ever happened to dependability?!
This place is starting to resemble London! First, it was the accent -on which topic BTW, digressing a bit, I really must question the American ad minds. The Brit accent is definitely "Oooh so sexyyy" and can be a potent pick-up accessory. But, it's really a bit too much to expect people to switch their insurance and house purifiers especially when animals speak in that come-hither accent!! :O.... Anyway, now we seem to have imported some of their weather too! It really is becoming all too unpredictable!
My miff is this. I woke up today with a head full of plans of spending the morning lazing in the sunny park with a bagel and cream cheese in one hand and a book in the other, sitting on the fresh grass and viewing the world through the greenest leaves and the most benevolent eyes. With such energizing thoughts, I stretched, yawned, made my morning cup of tea and peeked out through the blinds - and then, my dreams of the lovely spring picnic came crashing down! :-(( There was no splendor of the sunny spring outside... it was just a wet blanket! Bah!
I needed a pick-me-up and a really strong one that would actually turn this day around for me. So, I browsed my cookbooks - an exercise which in itself lifts my spirits, I mean, look at all those de-lish stuff that I could eat.. Droooll! Today, I wanted something quick and easy to make (when you are feeling this down, you need cheering up real fast). So I settled on a yummy looking chocolate recipe. Now, I don't really like chocolate having been temporarily forced off it for health reasons in my impressionable years. But, it seemed to be just the thing which could turn out into a gooey, warm, cuddly, sweet thing that I could enjoy while smiling on the erratic weather.
So I made a flourless chocolate cake out of a bar of Ghirardeli bitter-sweet chocolate bar and tons of butter (Of course!). Its really simple to make, and without the flour you save a lot of time by not having to blend the batter into a smooth lumpless paste. So, in under an hour, I had my helping of indulgence for the day. And to make things even more decadent, I whipped up some heavy cream with a bit of rum and chocolate bits and doused it all over my cake!:)))) I know it's Rich but its OK; Having to forego a day of fun and frolic in the sun is really a traumatic experience!
Ahhhh!!! What pleasure! When you are done licking the plate clean of the last crumb of baked chocolate and the last molecule of the cream, you can sit back and feel happy and blessed that God made this day so miserable outside that you could have this sweet pleasure sitting in your home. That is, if you are spiritual. If you are not, like me, you don't think and just enjoy the taste and afterglow! :-)
I was feeling high and very happy with the world. I know, there will be a time in the next few hours when the cocoa-induced high will ebb and I will fall back into an abyss of the real world and made cognizant of the side effects of this trip to sin-land - the stubborn extra pounds.
But then, that will be then and this is now... and right now there is another slice of my fabulous cake with my name on it! :)
P.S. : You don't really need a bad weather excuse to make this sumptuous delight. It serves a perfect end-of-meal for any special occasion. Like when you want your significant other to overlook your most recent shopping excess :D or more traditionally, the family celebration... :)
Warm Flourless Chocolate Cake with Rum and Chocolate Chip Cream
For the cake:
1/4 pound bitter sweet chocolate
1 stick butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs separated, white beaten to soft peaks
For the cream:
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 tp rum
1/2 cup chocolate chips (if you love chocolate increase amount)
Cake:
Melt the chocolate with the butter. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and combine with the molten chocolate. Gently fold in the stiff egg whites (Do not beat in the egg whites as this will take away all the fluffiness that the whites will bring to the cake). Pour into a buttered 8" cake pan and bake in preheated over at 350F for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Cream:
Making the whipped cream can be tricky. You need to know exactly when to stop whipping, else you can break the cream. Start whipping at a low speed and then shift into higher speeds. Keep whipping at high speed till you the volume of the cream building up. Keep whipping and add the sugar and rum. Shift down and whip for a few more seconds and stop. Fold in the chocolate chips into the whipped cream and refrigerate.
Serve the cake with loads of cream on it. The cream with the touch of rum provides a delicate balance to the deep flavor of the chocolate.
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