Sorbet/ice cream to go with eight-texture chocolate cake

[Bojana]

Hi,

I am making Peter Gilmore's eight textures of chocolate cake and need suggestions for sorbet/ice flavours to pair it with. Normally, I would make raspberry sorbet with chocolate but this cake is chocolate & caramel. Recipe can be found here:

http://www.masterchef.com.au/recipes/eighttexture-chocolate-cake.htm

The only few alterations I will do is make a lighter chocolate mousse (no eggs), freeze for neat stacking and brush dacquoise with melted cocoa butter to prevent it from going soggy after defrosting. In essence, keeping the chocolate and caramal spirit in.

What sorbets can you think of next to raspberry (I love crazy flavours)?

Should I garnish it further (ideas: olive oil powder and salted butter caramel) or keep it clean at just this decadent cake and sorbet?

Thanks!

[ChrisZ]

Personally I would just want the cake by itself. I've been looking at that recipe for ages and it's on the to-do list. I'd make it with the best chocolate I could find and I wouldn't want to dilute or distract from the flavour and textures by serving it with anything else.

[chefmd]

Sour cream or creme fraiche Ice cream with slight acidity might work.

[Bojana]

I feel we will need something fresh to cut through the richness of the cake. Creme fraiche ice cream sounds divine but would not it be too rich?

Maybe adding 9th texture of chocolate - chocolate sorbet?

[Mjx]

A sorbet sounds good, since it would make a pleasant contrast to the very rich cake, but much as I love chocolate sorbet, I think it would be overkill/a bit lost with all the other chocolate. I recently had a fantastic carrot and sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) sorbert (tart-sweet, complex despite its being so cold, and a gorgeous shade of orange, which contrasted beautifully with the brownie it accompanied) at Brewpub, in Copenhagen. Although sea buckthorn does have novelty value, I think any tart fruit or combination of fruits (or herbs, e.g. lime and basil) would make a terrific foil for all that chocolate.

[weinoo]

Vanilla. Philadelphia style.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I'd want a very mild sherbet, like Rose, Passionflower, or perhaps Lavender to cleanse the palate and allow for a deeper appreciation of the chocolate, myself....

[Bojana]

I'd want a very mild sherbet, like Rose, Passionflower, or perhaps Lavender to cleanse the palate and allow for a deeper appreciation of the chocolate, myself....

Mmm, I am intrigued by the lavander idea, I have both dried lavander and lavander essential oil I could play with. Do you have a recipe by any chance?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Not off the top of my head - I haven't made herbal ice creams in some time. IIRC, though, what I was doing was infusing cream with fresh lavender blossoms and then making ice cream according to my favourite vanilla recipe and simply omitting the vanilla. I see no reason that this wouldn't work with the dried lavender or with the essential oil, although I'd try a small batch of both to check - I'd expect the essential oil to produce a much stronger flavour than the dried herb.

[Bojana]

I have found one that sounds interesting, lemon and vodka will give it just that little extra. I will surely make it, even if it does not end up on the same plate with my chocolate cake.

Lavender Sorbet Recipe

Recipe Type: Sorbet, Wine

Cuisine: Italian

Yields: 10 to 12 servings

Prep time: 15 min

Ingredients:

1 cup granulated sugar

2 cups water

1 tablespoon culinary lavender flowers (food grade)

2 1/2 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice

2 tablespoons vodka

Preparation:

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar and water until the sugar dissolves. Add the lavender flowers; stir until mixture comes to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand approximately 10 minutes.

Place a fine strainer over a large bowl and pour syrup mixture through (straining out the lavender flowers). Add lemon juice and vodka to the strained syrup mixture; stir until thoroughly blended.

[Katie Meadow]

What about a tea-flavored sorbet? Earl Grey with bergamot or lavender. I love chocolates with Earl Gray tea infused into them.

[judiu]

Personally, I'd go with coffee, either as a sorbet or a granita, maybe with lemon zest ala expresso. Just my .02.

[ChrisTaylor]

Have you eaten the cake before? At the restaurant they serve it nude. Not so much as a quenelle of cream. It doesn't need anything. In fact, finishing it is a fair achievement.

Edited November 9, 2012 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[Bojana]

Have you eaten the cake before? At the restaurant they serve it nude. Not so much as a quenelle of cream. It doesn't need anything. In fact, finishing it is a fair achievement.

No I have not eaten it before. In fact, after reading the recipe, I have decided to cut the portion size in roughly half (6cm instead of 10 cm circles). I somehow feel I will need a fresh and cold bite after each chocolate bite but finishing may be a challenge indeed. It is supposed to be the grand finale of a 8 course dinner, that will include foie gras, pork belly, scallops and few other totally light ingredients .

[Tri2Cook]

Vanilla. Philadelphia style.

I agree. If you really want something to accompany it, a nice scoop of whatever style vanilla ice cream you prefer would be my choice as well. I've never had that cake but, looking at the recipe, you're not going to tame it with a little scoop of sorbet... so embrace it. Make it rich, make it decadent, make it too big to finish. Dessert used to be just that. Back before the days of "oh, I don't like dessert to be sweet" ( ) or "a teaspoon of plain water sorbet is the perfect end to a meal" ( ).

[Keith_W]

I have eaten this cake at the restaurant before. It is incredible. I don't think it needs anything.

BTW, the matching wine that they serve with this is a dark, smoky sherry. It was powerful enough to be tasted over the chocolate. I think something like an orange liqueur would go quite well as well, so you could try making a Cointreau and orange peel ice cream.

[ChrisTaylor]

Cointreau doesn't have an especially pronounced orange flavour. I'd steer towards Grand Marnier, perhaps, or maybe something else in that family. Mandarine Napoloean, say. A stronger bitter orange peel flavour w/ the sweetness of a brandy-based liqueur. Altho' I'm no fan of the orange/chocolate thing, so I wouldn't do that at all. I do like the idea of matching it with sherry, tho'. You could also match it with a nice rum. Something along the lines of Ron Zacapa 23. Aged rum and chocolate get along nicely.

EDIT

And yes, the cake is incredible. I'm v much a savoury-inclined person--desserts are almost always the least enjoyable part of a degustation for me--but this cake was amazing. It was probably the best dish on Quay's degustation when I went there. In part because of what it was but also because it was the first chocolate cake I'd had that was actually a chocolate cake. Most things passed off as chocolate cakes don't taste a whole lot of chocolate. Or maybe some elements do, but not the entire thing. Pete Gilmore doesn't fuck around. This is by far the best chocolate cake--so complex in execution but so single-minded in intent (no distractions of, say, fruity flavours here or coffee-infused stuff there)--I've ever had.

Edited November 9, 2012 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[stuartlikesstrudel]

Yeah I was thinking along the lines of what Chris and Keith were saying - if it's a recipe from a top notch chef, you'd probably do well to consider how they serve it... if it's with no accompaniments, as in this case, that's probably for a reason (it's not like they don't know how to make icecreams) and maybe that's all it needs!

[jrshaul]

I do a sour cream and lime ice cream that might work with just the sour cream. Mascarpone is a lovely option, but I've yet to make ice cream out of it.

Here's a rough draft of ingredients:

2 cups sour cream (the cheap stuff with guar gum is ideal)

1.5 cups half and half

3/4 cup sugar

Scald half and half, add sugar, and mix with sour cream once returned to room temperature. Prepare in standard ice cream maker.

[Mjx]

Vanilla. Philadelphia style.

I agree. If you really want something to accompany it, a nice scoop of whatever style vanilla ice cream you prefer would be my choice as well. I've never had that cake but, looking at the recipe, you're not going to tame it with a little scoop of sorbet... so embrace it. Make it rich, make it decadent, make it too big to finish. Dessert used to be just that. Back before the days of "oh, I don't like dessert to be sweet" ( ) or "a teaspoon of plain water sorbet is the perfect end to a meal" ( ).

Eh... I don't know, I think ultra rich cake plus ultra rich ice cream would just leave the diners feeling like they wish they could have had one or the other (unless the servings are very small).

I'm speaking as someone who regards a rich dessert or a bunch of Nutella straight from the jar as an entirely adequate and appropriate replacement for more conventional lunch arrays, and whose capacity for sugar consumption awes parents of small children. I definitely have no problem with super rich, intensely sweet desserts, but if I'm eating someplace that serves desserts of this complexity, I want and expect balance, too, and a rich ice cream just seems like it would be stomping on the cake's feet, rather than dancing gracefully with it. I've eaten rich ice cream + rich cake combos, and eating even half left me feeling kind of queasy (erm, all two dozen or so times I've tried this; I didn't say I was a quick learner, just a sugar fiend).

[Tri2Cook]

Eh... I don't know, I think ultra rich cake plus ultra rich ice cream would just leave the diners feeling like they wish they could have had one or the other (unless the servings are very small).

I agree... but it seems that the desire is to accompany the cake with something. Just in my opinion, a sorbet or granita that will contrast an extremely rich chocolate cake with a warm chocolate cream oozing through it needs to be pretty well thought out or it's just going to seem harsh and out of place. Some may disagree but I think contrasting is a tougher job to do well than complimenting. If I'm in a position where I'm asking for suggestions, which means I'm not confident in what will work, I'd definitely want to do a test run if I'm just going to pick from a list of ideas that sound refreshing. What would be refreshing on it's own may be something else paired with that cake.

[SylviaLovegren]

Ice cream or sorbet seem like overkill, with all the complexity of the cake. But if you're dying to try something, I'd go with a hazelnut or almond praline gelato to compliment the flavors already in the cake. Adding an additional flavor just seems wrong.

[Bojana]

Great discussion, so interessting to see all the different opinions, that reflect different personal tastes.

I am loving the orange sorbet& candied rind idea, with some grand marinier, this is how i would love to eat it. However, my husband and another person that will be there hate this combo, so i will spare them.

I have finished making the cake, it is sitting in my freezer. I will most likely make lavander sorbet to test it for myself (find the idea very intriguing) and at this dinner i will serve it nude, with some cocoa explosions as plate decor.

[Creola]

I am curious what you decided , I think a mascarpone gelato or if you want bold a mango gelato as chocolate and mango go very well together, the gelato being less sweet than ice cream.

[Bojana]

Hi Creola,

the dinner is coming Friday. I have decided to cheat. Will first serve a very small portion of pineapple basil sorbet as palette cleanser and then proceed with the cake as Mr. Gilmore serves it, without any additions. I'll post the reactions next weekend.