With this month, I complete one year of Daring Baker challenges. I joined the Daring Bakers in January of 2008 but because I couldn’t do two of the challenges in between, this happens to be my twelfth challenge.
“The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.” When I read these lines, at the beginning of this month, it seemed fitting that I would be celebrating this milestone using one of my favourites ingredients, Chocolate!
Given that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in February, I was expecting to see something chocolate, but what was really surprising was that that this flourless cake required just three (yes, I said only three) ingredients! Now don’t ever assume that just because a recipe is minimalist means that it’s going to be a breeze. Experience has taught me to look at such recipes with a lot of respect.However, I am happy to report that this challenge caused me no real problems.
This is one cake that couldn’t be easier to make, with just one pre-condition. Make this cake only if you love chocolate (or have someone who loves chocolate to serve it to) because this cake is just that, almost pure chocolate!!
Our hosts also wanted us to serve this cake with home-made ice-cream. We had to make the cake with the option of making our ice-cream with the given recipes or using any other recipe and in a flavour/ flavours of our choice.
While we don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day in particular (as my husband says “why restrict to one day when we have the whole year?”), we are always ready to celebrate especially if it involves good food and then chocolate at that.
Never having made a flourless cake before, I decided not to experiment but follow the given recipe, eggs and all. I just halved the recipe and made the cake in my 6″ round cake tin. Everything worked out fine. I baked the cake for 25 minutes and the cake looked dry on top. I don’t have an instant thermometer so I just used a knife to check if it was done. The knife came out wet, so I baked it for another 7 minutes and it was done.
The cake rose quite well and it looked pretty good when it came out of the oven. I think the discovery that it was no longer in a nice warm oven must have come as a shock to my cake. It just decided to sit down! I know the cake was meant to sink a bit, but I never thought I would have a crater in the middle of my cake. So I tried to camouflage that a bit by dressing it up and filled the crater with some white, milk and dark chocolate curls.
We were also required to make one ice-cream to serve with the cake. Ice-cream is another thing we like and I make very often. It also helps that we live in a part of India where it is ice-cream weather all the 12 months of the year.I made egg free ice-creams in two delicious flavours – fresh mint and spiced carrot. This is the season for juicy and sweet winter carrots it seemed right to try turning them into ice-cream. I do not have an ice-cream maker and have always made them by hand. The recipes for both flavours are below.
I have developed this standard egg free recipe for my ice-creams and I adapt that to whatever flavour I am making at any given time. Most of the time, I leave out the cream but use fresh fruit to flavour my ice-cream (or gelato since ther’s no cream in it) as this makes for a much healthier dessert.
Chocolate Valentino - A Flourless Chocolate Cake Daring Bakers Challenge February 2009
Ingredients
For the Fresh Mint Ice-cream :
- 500 ml milk (I used 3% fat)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup mint leaves fresh , loosely packed
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/4 cup milk powder (I used skimmed)
- 100 ml cream (25% fat)
- 1 tsp lemon juice
For the Spiced Carrot Ice-cream :
- ml milk (I used 3% fat)
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup carrots grated , tightly packed
- ml cream (25% fat)
- 4 pods cardamom .
- 1 cinnamon " piece
- 4 star anise leaves of
- 4 cloves
Instructions
- For the Fresh Mint Ice-cream, put the sugar, milk powder and milk in a heavy and thick-bottomed pan and mix well. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, and simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and allow to it to cool a bit. Roughly tear the mint leaves and drop them into the milk. Stir well and keep this aside for about an hour so the mint flavour infuses into the milk.
- Now strain the milk into a plastic or metal container (in which you will freeze the ice-cream) and discard the mint leaves. In another pan, put the cream and cornstarch and mix well. Place on the stove and heat the cream, stirring constantly until the cornstarch in it causes the cream to thicken a bit. Take this off the heat.
- Add this to the mint flavoured milk and beat well with a whisk or electric mixer. Add the lemon juice and mix again. Allow to cool to room temperature and freeze, taking the ice-cream out every 45 minutes or so and mixing well to break up the ice crystals. Do this about 3 to 4 times.
- For the Spiced Carrot Ice-cream, adjust the amount of sugar according to the sweetness of your carrots. Keep aside 1 cup of milk.
- Put the sugar, milk powder and remaining milk in a heavy and thick-bottomed pan and mix well. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, and simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes. Add the cardamom, cinnamon, star anise and cloves to the milk and take the pan off the heat. Stir the milk and keep aside for about 2 hours so the spices infuse into it.
- Now strain the milk into a plastic or metal container (in which you will freeze the ice-cream) and discard the spices. In the meanwhile, cook the grated carrots in the reserved 1 cup of milk till really soft. Take off the heat and allow it to cool and then blend this mixture into a smooth puree. Keep aside.
- In another pan, put the cream and cornstarch and mix well. Place on the stove and heat the cream, stirring constantly until the cornstarch in it causes the cream to thicken a bit. Take this off the heat.
- Add the pureed carrots and the thickened cream to the spice infused milk and beat well with a whisk, electric mixer or in a blender. Freeze the ice-cream, taking it out every 45 minutes or so and mixing well to break up the ice crystals. Do this about 3 to 4 times.
- I served the mint ice-cream in chocolate cups. To make chocolate cups melt the equal quantities of semi-sweet and milk chocolate with a little butter. Coat the inside of a few cupcake cases with an even layer of melted chocolate, using a paint brush. Place them in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Once the chocolate has hardened, take them out and paint one more layer of melted chocolate on the inside of each cup. This ensures that your chocolate cups don't break. Place them in freezer for another 10 minutes till the chocolate hardens. Now carefully peel off the cupcake cases. Store the chocolate cups in an airtight container in the refrigerator till needed.
- The idea for the spiced carrot ice-cream chocolate sandwiches came from David Lebovitz's detailed post on making Simple, Little Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches.
- I used the left over melted chocolate from making the above chocolate cups. Place a plastic transparency sheet or a greased sheet of aluminium foil (or parchment paper) on a baking sheet.
- Drop about 1/4 tsp melted chocolate on the sheet or greased foil and spread it into a thin even circle, using the back of the spoon. Repeat, for as many chocolate discs as you require. Refrigerate so the chocolate hardens. Peel off the discs carefully (they have a tendency to break) and store in an airtight container in the fridge till needed.
- To assemble the sandwich, make small scoops of ice-cream and place them on a chilled plate and freeze. Take them out to soften slightly and sandwich each small scoop between two chocolate discs. Freeze the sandwiches till ready to serve.
- I also made candied carrot curls to garnish my spiced carrot ice-cream sandwiches.
I'm Aparna and My Diverse Kitchen is my ovo-lacto vegetarian food blog where you'll find recipes, food stories & photography. I've been blogging since 2007 and believe the kitchen, and the dining table (by extension) is really the heart of a home. 
Tempting Aparna the cake and ice cream. Nice one. Viji
Pretty Valentino, regardless of the shrinking (mine shrunk too). You covered it up well, and lovve the two ice creams, especially the carrot!
Congrats on completing 12 challenges. You are indeed a daring baker.Cake looks nice with those decorations in the center. And the winner is the ice cream.. Haven’t tasted mint flavored ice creams. Thanks for both the recipes which will be tried in my kitchen shortly.
Oh man, carrot ice cream? Im def going to try that when its not snowing… 🙂 Great job!
Happy 1 year anniversary with this group – I love it! Your cake looks fantastic! Great job!
Congrats for completing a year of challenge. The cake is decadent.
We have carrot cake, so why not carrot ice cream! Very creative. Happy anniversary!
You have been very creative with the ice creams ! Beautiful cake, too.
Spiced carrot ice cream sounds so interesting…very pretty cake by the way!
Amazing ice cream flavours Aparna! And I love your chocolate curls. I can never get my chocolate to curl properly like yours!
The chocolate curls are looking pretty..Carrot ice cream is very creative 🙂
Nice decorations and presentation! You did a wonderful job!Cheers,Rosa
Actually, I love the fact that this cakes sinks :)Love your decoration!
Happy 1st year to you!!! The spicy carrot ice-cream sounds so weird but I bet it was good. (Who would think that carrot cake tastes good?) Just love the pictures you really did a good job.
You are really a daring baker, the cake looks so delicious my daughter a chocolic would love this,my daughter sitting next to me is saying OOOOaaaaa & she now wants me to make it!!!,can u come home please!!!, i am still a budding baker…
Hope you got my orange entry
CONGRATS on completing 12 challenges -now you are a true Daring baker.I also have the same policy on VDay.Also appearance is not everything.Love the cake Aparna,I have seen vegan recipes for the same,but looking at the amount of tofu,I was not/am still not sure that it will work.So you did better not experimenting.Thanks for the standard ice cream recipes.Very helpful and the spiced carrot is a must try.
Fabulous! love the flavors of the Ice cream,I couldn’t enjoy the ice-cream much coz it still so cold outside.
I’m sure it’s still delicious even if there was a crater in the middle. The chocolate shavings more than make up for it 🙂
That certainly looks delicious Aparna & I LOVE your choice of ice-creams. They sound exotic & novel. Yes hearts are meant to sink i guess, as mine did too..but you need a little more love on top & WOW!! You got it!!
love the sound of the ice creams. congrats on complete 12 DB challenges it’S great to have you on board. well done on this one!
You did a fantastic job on your cake & ice cream! I had trouble with mine sinking in the middle too, but that didn’t affect the taste at all. 🙂
Congrats on 12 challenges and I’m glad you joined us on this one!!
Happy one year anniversary with the DBs. Your cake looks simply awesome!
I love the sound of the spiced carrot ice cream. The ingredients remind me )happily) of the carrot halva I made years ago.And congratulations on 12 challenges!
Nice job 😀
Lovely cake and ice-cream Aparna, and congratulations on completing a year of DB challenges. Abt the flax seeds, no, the pudi does not turn oily at all, its even more drier than the Dry Coconut one. There is a lot of dalia powder in it also, so its very dry. Do try.
ohmygoodness! you’ve done a great job!
great job! I love your ice cream flavors! very creative!
congrats on completing 1st year..lip smacking icecreams and cake:)
I think you express my worries about this cake wonderfully, i do understand what you say!Love your choice of ice creams (mint! yeah!)
12 DB challenges – wow! Congratulations!I stay away from making icecreams because (i) I don’t like the ones with egg and (ii) I don’t have an icecream maker. But you are inspiring me. Carrot icecream is very unusual and sounds tempting. And mint icecream has to be pure genius – I’ve tried mint sorbet, and I love mint flavor in B&R
Mmm, your cake looks amazing!! I love the ice creams you made as well =D!!
So pretty! Your chocolate curlies look very nice!
Congrats on the milestone. I’ve made flourless cakes a few times, maybe thrice. I’ve liked the chocolate ones.
Lovely cake and Ice cream..Looks very tempting..Congrats on completing one year as DB..
That surely is one good looking cake Aparna, you really did spruce it up well. Tell me about the sunken cake, I camouflaged it with powered sugar…hehe! Well done!
Great work Aparna – you camaflauged the cavity well, and mint icecream with chcolate – mmmmmm …
The cake looks very nice with the beautiful chocolate curls.
What creative ice creams! This looks beautiful.
Love the chocolate curls you put atop your cake! Your carrot ice cream sounds unusual and delicious! This is my first visit to your blog, and I really like it.
the cake looks beautiful, lovely job. carrot ice cream is something i have yet to try
Spiced carrot? You had me at cardamom….
You love carrots, don’t you? :)I love DB Challenges. I can drool and drool. LOL 🙂 Good looking cake, Aparna!
I love the idea of a spiced carrot ice cream. I’d have never thought of it!
Wow, never heard of carrot ice cream before but the carrot is sweet so why not. Great looking pictures.
Aparna that is just stunning! Beautiful job! I love the idea of carrot ice cream, it sounds exotic! Happy 12th challenge!
Your ice creams look and sound interesting and delicious. Can I have a scoop of each?
Wow, carrot ice cream.. how interesting. Your cake looked fabulous! Great photos too =). I sometimes missed living in a place with “ice cream” weather all year long. Melbourne’s weather is very moody most of the time. It’s suppose to be summer now, but I turned on the heater last night coz it’s pretty cold night. Well done on the challenge!!
Goodness I love how you expresses it: was no longer in a nice warm oven must have come as a shock to my cake. It just decided to sit down!Your decorations in the crater are fabulous!
Yum, looks great! If you want to try a lighter flourless cake, there are some good recipes out there. I’ve made a lighter one that I like much better, especially for its texture.I love your presentation, and your ice creams sound delicious! Pretty interesting seeing all the creative flavours that people make.
Beautiful cake! I love the chocolate shavings! Can’t wait to try your spiced carrot ice cream. It sounds lovely!
Your cake may have decided to “sit down” but it appears to be lounging quite regally!!! Your recovery operation resulted in a stunning look.Spiced Carrot ice cream…do you think a scoop would survive the shipping to the States??? Sounds fantastic!!!
Happy Anniversary!Spiced carrot sounds so interesting – I would have never ever thought of it. The carrots must be very sweet, here the winter carrots tend to be bitter.I love seeing the challenges all over the world – you bring so much to this group!Hugs,Mary
Hi Aparna, one gorgeous cake and scrummy mint ice cream – YUM!!Rosie x
I like the look of your camouflaged cake. And spiced carrot ice cream sounds very daring indeed. Here’s to twelfe completed Challenges.
Aparna, the chocolate curls look gorgeous! If you didn’t mention it we’d never now it sank to such a great extent. You’re right about kinds not liking it – my little sis only ate 2 spoonfuls of it. But I’m not complaining, I was happy to have more for myself! 😀
The carrot spiced ice cream definitely grabbed my attention. I think you have inspired another ice cream attempt for me.
Hey, at least your cake only cratered. Mine turned into a dying star, collapsing in on itself. BEAUTIFUL job by the way. I’m going to have to give those chocolate curls a try. I’d probably need a pound of curls to fill up my “crater” if you can call it that. It’s more like the never-ending abyss.
I have tasted this cake. My friend made this for us and they taste great with ice cream 😀 I missed FIC Orange this time. I had so many things in mind but everything got postponed. Anyways.. May be next time 🙁
Congrats on one year of DB challenges and boy did you hit it out of the park on this one. I love the chocolate shavings on the cake and the spiced carrot ice cream sounds excellent.
I just read some tips from a baker. He was writing if the eggwhite is too stiff, the cake will sank. Anyway your cake looks great and the ice cream sound awesome!
Great job on your challenge and love the presentation.
The cake looks great! And I love the ice cream you made!
Very tasty looking results. Chocolate and mint are a very popular combo and sounds delicious. The spiced carrot ice cream is a new one for me. It does sound nice.
Thank you all so much, for dropping by to look at my cake and ice-cream and your kind words.
congratulations on finishing one whole year of daring baking aparna. i had 2 hits out of five, so this is really awesome. the cake looks fab. what got me is the carrot icecream. and the way you presented it in the chocolate cups. awesome!!
Ice-cream weather, 12 months of the year.. heh yes indeed! I have to say though, cold weather here in Sydney has never stopped me from enjoying ice cream 😀 Love the sound of that spiced carrot ice-cream – how unusual! An interesting match to your fabulous cake.
hi,the cake looks delicious. the interesting part is carrot ice-cream very originative.. I am intrigued.