SHF32: craving chocolate and red fruit



After taking a moment to re-visit the recipes posted on The Casual Baker, it occurred to me that I blog portable baking more often than not. Cookies, bars, muffins: anything easily wrapped in plastic and tucked inside a brownbag lunch without fear of demolition. (Of course, as with any rule, there are always exceptions.)

But when the Domestic Goddess announced cravings as the theme of this month’s Sugar High Friday, part of her explanation inspired me to leave the Tupperware in the cupboard and get fancy with an eat-in only creation:

What dessert always catches your eye on a menu in a restaurant and you've had it made by a thousand different people but never made it yourself?

When the dessert menu makes its way around to me in a restaurant (as it often does), I inevitably gravitate towards the chocolate desserts. It’s rarely the triple chocolate on chocolate option that catches my eye, but rather a dark chocolate cake or mousse with a trace of red fruit.

To satisfy my craving for the flavours of chocolate and red fruit at home, I whipped up a light chocolate cake with a rich red currant-infused fudge sauce. Baked in a silicone muffin mould with the fudge sauce on the bottom, these cupcakes essentially frost themselves when you release them top-side down.

Red Currant Fudge Pudding Cakes

Fudge Sauce:

1 ½ ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
¼ cup red currant jelly
¼ cup whipping cream

Cakes:

¼ cup boiling water
3 tablespoons cocoa
2 tablespoons whipping cream
¼ teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons red currant jelly
¼ cup butter
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
½ cup flour
½ teaspoon baking soda, scant
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease 6 cups of a silicone muffin mould.

To prepare the fudge sauce, bring the chopped chocolate, jelly and cream to a simmer in a small heavy saucepan. Stir occasionally until smooth. Pour the sauce evenly between the 6 greased muffin cups.

To prepare the cake batter, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy in a large bowl. Add the egg and beat well.

In a second bowl, measure out the cocoa powder and jam. Pour the boiling water on top and whisk until smooth. Add the milk and vanilla and whisk again until smooth.

In a third bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt.

Add one-third of the flour mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and mix. Add one-half of the cocoa mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and mix. Repeat these two steps. Finish with the remaining one-third of the flour mixture and mix until smooth.

Pour the batter evenly into the muffin cups, on top of the fudge sauce. Bake for about 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean (or nearly clean, given that the fudge sauce on the bottom will still be liquid). Remove from oven and cool in the pan for about 10-15 minutes.

In one swift motion, turn the muffin mould upside down over a platter or other flat surface and carefully pop out the individual pudding cakes. If any fudge sauce remains in the cups, don’t let it go to waste. Spoon it over the cakes or directly into your mouth!

Yields 6 small pudding cakes.

Notes: Serve warm – fresh from the oven or reheated – with a scoop of ice cream or dollop of whipped cream and a garnish of mint and fresh red currants. If red currants aren’t what you crave, try a raspberry jelly and fresh raspberry garnish instead.

Source: Based on a recipe for Warm Chocolate Raspberry Pudding Cake from Epicurious, which was originally published in Gourmet in January 1999.

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