Can this cake be saved? When baking goes terribly wrong...

[Kerry Beal]

I seem to have neglected to post it here - but last week some time I made this Pressed Chocolate Cake.

Ten eggs are required, the whites beaten and incorporated into the chocolate, butter, sugar and yolks.

I was making it again tonight to take for dessert to a dinner invitation that I have tomorrow - melted the chocolate, added the butter, sugar etc - beat up the whites with a bit of the sugar to stabilize, folded them in, put in the pan prepared with parchment and popped it into the oven.

Started cleaning up the kitchen and discovered the cup with the 10 egg yolks in it sitting on the counter. What to do, what to do?

So I pulled the pan out of the oven (it was about 7 minutes in), scooped out some of the batter, beat in the eggs with a spatula, returned that to the pan and stirred it together as best I could without disturbing the parchment. Of course I'm sure I deflated a good percentage of the egg whites doing this - but they were somewhat stabilized by the sugar added.

It did rise right up to the top of the pan, the top doesn't look quite the same as last time.

So it is now sitting under it's weighted plate - I won't know if my repair is a success until it is cut tomorrow night - hope it worked - I'd hate to think I'm taking a defective dessert to dinner. I'll have to make sure I take enough raspberry coulis and whipped cream to disguise any defects.

[pastrygirl]

That is the good thing about chocolate desserts - as long as there is good quality chocolate in there that has not been somehow ruined, chocolate fans will be very forgiving of imperfections. And enough whipped cream will hide a lot of sins. Is it something you could pour a chocolate glaze over to sex it up? If you fluff up the batter just to weigh it down, consider your deflated batter halfway pressed already

Edited July 27, 2012 by pastrygirl (log)

[lesliec]

I'd eat it, Kerry!

Pressing it after cooking should ease your concern about deflating the whites. I haven't previously come across this technique, but we have a similar recipe which always looks like a failure - there's almost no rise at all. But slather it in cherry jam, kirsch (or rum, or whatever) and whipped cream and it's wonderful.

[Smithy]

I'd eat it in a heartbeat! But if I were serving it I'd be sure to include plenty of raspberry coulis and whipped cream (as you mentioned) to pretty it up. I also like the idea of a chocolate ganache. Could you, say, split the flattened cake into 2 layers, put raspberry and whipped cream between, then cover the lot with chocolate ganache? (Easy for me to say, when I'm not the one due to present the finished dessert in a few hours.)

The recipe reminds me a lot of Reine de Saba (aka Queen of Sheba) torte, minus the raspberry liqueur or kirsch. That's one of my favorites. Am I missing something, or are these close kin?

[ChrisZ]

When I was 15 I spent 2 weeks doing work experience in a high-end French restaurant. I was given the opportunity to make a chocolate cake, which didn't go so great and turned out a lot like that one. However the flavour was fine, so the chef trimmed it into little cubes and served them as petit fours with coffee.

[Kerry Beal]

I'd eat it in a heartbeat! But if I were serving it I'd be sure to include plenty of raspberry coulis and whipped cream (as you mentioned) to pretty it up. I also like the idea of a chocolate ganache. Could you, say, split the flattened cake into 2 layers, put raspberry and whipped cream between, then cover the lot with chocolate ganache? (Easy for me to say, when I'm not the one due to present the finished dessert in a few hours.)

The recipe reminds me a lot of Reine de Saba (aka Queen of Sheba) torte, minus the raspberry liqueur or kirsch. That's one of my favorites. Am I missing something, or are these close kin?

Looks quite similar - this has more eggs and no almond flour and flavouring is different. And it looks like the QoS falls on it's own without the pressing. But they otherwise do look like kissing cousins.

[Toliver]

I agree with the suggestions. You have a natural bowl shape on top...fill it with something...raspberries or the suggested raspberry coulis and whipped cream.

Please let us know the final version.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

I'd go with blackberries and whipped cream.

[Kerry Beal]

So here is the cake after unmolding - doesn't look too different from the first one.

Perhaps a little less lofty than the first - more like a giant brownie than cake. Clearly you can see at the bottom and the edges where the yolk didn't get mixed in.

Everyone waits patiently for their piece.

Had a bit of technical difficulty with the cream siphon - kind of had a mind of it's own and blew cream everywhere!

All in all though - I think this cake was saved. If it was a more standard cake I don't think the rescue would necessarily have worked.

[Smithy]

Oh, my. My, my, my! Got any leftovers you'd care to send me?