Trying to get myself inspired to cook, I found a very interesting recipe that combines chocolate and prunes… ‘huh?’ you might say… that was my first reaction too. But I was so game for it. So there I was, all set and ready… mixed my portion of chocolate with cream… buzzing sound of the electric beater trying to turn it into a mousse. 5 minutes passed… nothing, 10 minutes passed, still nothing was forming. OK, I wasn’t darn going to give it up! Beated it for another 5 minutes… still nothing… I decided it was about time to get some manly muscle reinforcement. Pierre took a look at it and said that there was not a chance that the cream would turn into a mousse. Nooooo… it just needed a tinny bit more beatings, that’s all. Pierre gave it another go just to please me… me thinking with his macho whipping, surely this chocolate mass would be seduced to turn itself into this beautiful glorious mousse it supposed to be. Arrrgghhhh… much to my despair it still remained a pot of creamy chocolate sauce. 😭
OK… this time around with no available recipe to guide me, I just had to go with my gut feeling and borrow here and there from the recipe books… then cross my fingers and hope it turns out beautiful and doesn’t explode in my oven.
So, off I go, beating eggs & sugar till creamy and light, in goes my creamy chocolate together with a bit of vanilla, baking powder and melted butter. Final touch, I stirred in only 3 tbsp of cornflour against my better judgment of 90 g. Then off it went into the oven.
Like a little kid, I sat and watched my lovely cake grow and grow like a balloon… to a point I thought it might just really explode. Phew! Thank goodness it didn’t. I was rather pleased and proud of myself at how beautiful my cake turned out. I couldn’t wait to taste it. So off the timer goes, I eagerly took it out of the oven.
Holy crap! Nooooooo… my beautiful cake… boo-hoo hooo… I watched in horror as the lovely mount collapsed into a pitiful crater. ☹️
I consoled myself that it didn’t looked that bad…well that was what I thought before I turned it over on the wire rack to transfer on the plate … as I watched in horror again like in a slow motion picture, it slowly sunk to the other side. OK, how in the world was I going to get it onto the plate in 1 piece? Breathe, Pamela, breathe… slowly and delicately I somehow managed to flip it over without further disaster… till I saw my cake … I wanted to weep by then … it was cracked like a marbled egg. ☹️ I walked away in a total despair.
Michèle was there for tea and took a bite of it: it was very good! The surface of the cake is nice and crunchy, the inside is all soft and moist like a brownie. I didn’t quite believe it… I thought she was just trying to cheer me up. I took a bite of it myself and indeed it was really good. It would have been better if I had baked it in a smaller pan though.
