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.
I had a few friends over and lured them with the prospect of
having flourless chocolate cake and ice cream. For the ice cream I decided to
go with David Lebovitz’s Salted Caramel Ice Cream.
Let me just say that this man is a genius. He must be. The
ice cream was the creamiest and probably one of the most amazingly rich and
delicious ice creams I’ve ever had. Seriously! It wasn’t hard to make though
there are a few steps.
The cake was alright. Honestly I have a better flourless
chocolate cake I like to make with a raspberry coulis that is phenomenal. This
cake seemed gritty to me. No likey. I used Scharffenberger chocolate.
Bittersweet and semi-sweet. It was a gorgeous color. The texture was just not
great.
Overall the dessert was good. The ice cream didn’t quite
harden enough by the time it was time to eat, but it was all good. The taste
way outweighed the fact that it was a little bit loose.
Everyone devoured both the cake and the ice cream. I got
lots of oooohs and aaaaahs. Personally I thought the cake was meh, but when you’ve
got a few glasses of wine in you like most of my guests did, it was better.
The picture certainly isn’t the best that I’ve put on the site,
but someone else took it with a different camera than I usually use.
In short, I was pleased with this challenge. It was totally
up my alley. Thanks Wendy and Dharm!
