The Friday Baking Project

Diabolo

Yield: 1 cake

# of Servings: 8 to10

Ingredients

Cake:

6 oz (170 g) 56% to 64% chocolate, wafers or chopped into small pieces

12 tbl (6 oz (170 g) unsalted butter, room temperature

4 large egg yolks

½ cup (3.6 oz / 103 g) sugar

¼ tsp vanilla extract

½ cup (1.65 oz / 47 g) almond flour

¼ cup (1.15 oz / 33 g) all-purpose flour

4 large egg whites

Pinch of salt

¼ cup (1.8 oz / 51g) sugar

Whipped Cream:

1 ½ cups heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbl (.8 oz / 23 g) confectioner’s sugar, sifted

Finishing:

Chocolate shavings, as needed

Special tools and equipment needed:

• 8″ by 2″ cake pan, or 8″ by 3″ springform pan
• Handheld or countertop mixer with whisk attachment
• Sauce pan for double boiler

Pre-recipe preparations:

• Preheat oven to 375 °F
• Butter the cake or springform pan, line with a parchment paper circle, and butter the parchment paper.

Directions

1. Place chocolate and butter in a medium-size mixing bowl over barely simmering water. When chocolate and butter are almost completely melted, remove from heat, let sit for a minute, then whisk until smooth. Set aside.
2. In machine bowl using wire whip or in mixing bowl using handheld mixer, whip egg yolks with sugar and vanilla extract until thick and pale yellow.
3. Mix in chocolate mixture, ground almonds, and flour.
4. In machine bowl using wire whip, beat egg whites with salt until soft peaks. Slowly add the sugar and beat just until medium stiff meringue. Do not overbeat.
5. Mix in â…“ of the egg whites into the chocolate batter to lighten, stirring up from the bottom of the bowl. Gently fold in remaining whites just until no white streaks remain.
6. Bake at 375 °F for 5 minutes, reduce to 350 °F and bake for an additional 23 to 25 minutes, for a total baking time of 28 to 30 minutes. The cake should just have just formed a center crown. A tester inserted into the center of the cake should come out with a bit of chocolate batter on it¹.
7. Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack.
8. If cake is in 8″ by 2″ cake pan, let cool for 10 minutes. Place an 8″ cardboard cake circle or another cooling rack on top of the cake pan and invert. Peel the parchment circle off bottom of cake, then invert again onto a cooling rack. The cake should now be right-side up. Let cool to room temperature.
9. If cake is in a springform pan, let cool for 10 minutes, then remove the sides. Let cool to room temperature. Invert the cake onto an 8″ cake circle or cooling rack, peel the parchment paper off the bottom then invert again onto serving plate. Cool to room temperature.
10. The cake will sink slightly in the center as it cools.
11. Wrap well with plastic film and place in refrigerator for several hours or up to 2 days. Cake may also be frozen for up to 1 month.

Finishing and serving:

1. Remove cake from fridge and unwrap.
2. Method 1: Dust cake lightly with confectioners’ sugar, and place on a serving plate. Serve with a large bowl of softly whipped cream on the side.
3. Method 2: Whip cream until just stiff.  With a plastic pastry bag and a #5 star tip, pipe whipped cream over the top of the cake using a pattern of your choice.
4. To make chocolate shavings, scrape (carefully) an 8-inch chef’s knife along a large piece of chocolate toward you at a 45 ° angle. The blocks of chocolate from Trader Joe’s are perfect for this. Alternatively, for smaller shavings use a vegetable peeler on the edge.

Notes:

1. This cake is baked slightly more underdone than other French-style chocolate cakes