This week's experiment was a last minute decision. A friend of mine mentioned making this cake for her husband this week and it sounded so good, I just had to try it.

It was quick and easy to make and, fortunately, I had all the ingredients at home... well, almost, I didn't have 200g of 70% cocoa chocolate. I had one 60% bar (113g) and also used semi-sweet baking chocolate.

The result: first, you gotta love dark chocolate. The taste is powerful and, if you don't like dark chocolate, well, you won't like this. You can really feel it on the back of your tongue. The orange taste was also pretty strong (although my daughter says she couldn't taste it) but a good complement to the dark chocolate.

I do not like when recipes are not precise. In this case, the size of the pan was vague ("a large pan"). How big is a large pan? And is a large pan in France the equivalent of a small or medium pan in the US (you know, like fast-food portions)? So, I used a 10" pan...
Now, I knew from the comments on the recipe not to expect a high cake. However, this was really thin, as in between 1/2" and 3/4" thick. I understand that this was not a regular cake, there is no flour, but was the thickness due to the large pan or really all I could expect? If I used a smaller pan, would it make the cake higher or just prevent it from cooking thoroughly in the allocated time.

The texture of the cake was fantastic. It is very much like a mousse, light and fluffy. But, careful, the richness of the cake makes me wonder if having a thicker cake would really be a good idea or just become too overwhelming. I would suggest serving this maybe with a scoop of French vanilla ice cream, or at least whip cream.

Original recipe here.
Ingredients:

• 200g dark chocolate (70%)
• 1 orange (pick organic, since using the zest).
• 5 eggs, separated
  
• 50g butter
• 10g cornstarch
• 30g powdered sugar
• 2 pinches of cinnamon
  

Preparation:

1. Wash the orange thoroughly, zest it with a grater, squeeze the juice and keep everything aside.
2. Break the chocolate in small pieces and melt it in a double-boiler (bain-marie).
3. Melt the butter in the orange juice.
4. In a large bowl, mix the sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch. Then add the egg yolks one at a time.
5. Add the orange zest, then the chocolate, then the melted butter/orange juice.
6. Beat the whites with a pinch of salt. Incorporate them little by little into the chocolate batter.
7. Pour the batter in a buttered/floured large pan (see note above).
8. Bake it for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.
9. Let it cool before removing it from the pan.
10. Decorate using powdered sugar, candied orange peels, grated chocolate...
    

Notes:

• The surface of the cake was beautiful! I went for the quick and easy powdered sugar to decorate, but really, it was a shame to hide the beautiful surface.
• I've mentioned the taste was very strong and not very sweet at all. If you prefer sweeter, try and modify the recipe to add more sugar OR

• Try the recipe with milk chocolate (omit the orange zest and replace the orange juice with milk and cocoa powder). I don't know what the result would be but since there is more sugar in milk chocolate...

Invite a few friends over who don't mind being guinea pigs and try out new recipes... kind of... A mix of tried and true and new is always safest and having a contingency plan, a must (for me, at least, as one of my friend was teasing me about last night).

Ingredients:

• Individual faluches (see previous post) - a bit thicker than normal to be used as dish.
• Butter
• Smoked salmon
• Salmon (fresh or canned) - I used fresh
• Extra-small shrimp or salad shrimp
• Mixed greens
• Tomatoes or asparagus
• Head of lettuce
• Mayonnaise
• Salt, pepper, herbs
• Vinaigrette

Preparation:

1. Poach the salmon (5-7 minutes in boiling water). Then take it apart with your fingers. Delicately mix it with mayonnaise, salt, pepper and your favorite herbs. Do not crush the salmon.
2. Take your faluches and cut from the top to make some kind of trough. Remove the bread inside and either set aside for different use (making bread crumbs, pudding...) or discard.
3. Butter your bread trough and line with smoked salmon.
4. In a separate bowl, mix your greens with your vinaigrette. I used store-bought raspberry vinaigrette but you can make your own. Try and use perfumed vinegars and different oils.
   
5. Put some of the greens on top of the salmon.
6. On the bed of greens, put some of your salmon salad.
7. Decorate the whole thing with pieces of rolled smoked salmon, tomatoes or asparagus, and shrimps.
8. Place on a plate covered with leaves of lettuce. Place more of the tomatoes or asparagus around your faluche for decoration.

The food itself is fresh and very summery. The size of the faluche dictates how hungry you have to be. All in all, I am really happy with the way it came out and this is definitely going on the must-have list. And when you think about it, many variations are possible, both sweet and savory.