The "Cake" Challenge

My last attempt during the Dinner with friends wasn't really a success. So even if I was already very late on this Challenge n°5, I turned to the best baker I know: my mum. She gave me advice, recipes and some confidence to try this challenge again.

Thanks to her, I might be reconciled with baking:)

 For the cake:

• 80g flour
• 10g baking powder
• 125g butter
• 125g dark chocolate
• 125g sugar
• 3 eggs
• pinch of salt

Mix the 3 egg yolk with the sugar until you get a nice white texture. Add the flour mixed with the baking power and a pinch of salt. Melt the chocolate with the butter in a "bain-marie" and add it to the mixture. Beat the egg whites and mix it gently with the rest. Butter your mold, add the mixture and put it in the oven at 180°c for 35 minutes. Let it rest few hours before cutting it.

For the middle:

• 100g mascarpone
• 20cl bitter orange syrup
• 10g bitter orange marmalade

 Mix it all together. My mother just made bitter orange marmalade herself so I decided to use it but you can use any perfume you want. Just remember the orange flavour works perfectly with chocolate.

For the topping:

• 100g dark chocolate
• 50g butter
• 50g crème fraîche

Melt it all together in a "bain-marie", pour it on the cake and spread evenly with a spatula. Let it rest in the fridge for an hour. I chose to finish the topping with white chocolate bits.
Enjoy it with a nice cup of coffee!

So, is this challenge a success?

Dinner with friends

I recently invited friends over for dinner before we went out. You remember that Alex challenged me to make a Chocolate cake? Well, I didn't really succeed... I'll let you see the dessert to judge that!

The starters were Ginger Scallops in a lime and butter sauce. Except for cooking the scallops, this is a very simple recipe but so delicious. First, dispose on the plate a spoon of Gari (marinated ginger you eat with sushi) and the juice of one lime. Cook your scallops: in a hot pan, 1 minute on each side. You have to be very quick. Melt 100g of butter, and add it on your scallops in the plates. Finish with basil finely chopped.

The second dish was a roasted pork Tenderloin with mozzarella and pesto eggplant. First, colour the tenderloin by cooking each side very quickly in a hot pan, and in the oven with thyme at 200°c for 20 minutes. After this time, take the Tenderloin out and cover it with aluminum foil until you're ready to cut slices and serve.
For the eggplant, cut 1 cm slices and cook them in a pan with olive oil until they are soft. Prepare an oven plate with olive oil at the bottom, take each slice and add mozzarella in the middle with a teaspoon of pesto and fold the edges to the middle. Cook it in the oven at 150°c until the mozzarella melts.
Prepare a sauce by reducing the juice of the tenderloin with cream. It's just what you need to complete the moist texture of the meat.


And the dessert:

I tried very hard to make a perfect chocolate cake for dessert but I failed! and even if it tasted good, it had the shape of a cap... Yes. A cap. So the girls (Heidi and Helle) became very creative and I thank them so much. We cut the cakes in circles (and little hearts), put it

in a opened strawberry meanwhile I prepared a chocolate sauce. I added vanilla ice-cream on the side with 2 physalis.

The challenge wasn't really a success so I'm going to try very soon a new chocolate cake and hope for the best! :)