Lemon/Chocolate Cake

Well, this is turning into a cooking blog!! I really have to start posting about plenty of other things... but I guess I am just way too fond of good food and especially desserts!

So here is the recipe for a deliciously soft lemon/chocolate cake (or any flavour you want)! Inspired from www.miminecuisine.canalblog.com!

And as usual, here is what you need:

• 30 min to prepare
• 50 min in the oven

• 3 bowls of medium size
• espresso maker 
• 2 pots, a bigger and a smaller one
• a grater
• 2 forks
• a little wooden spoon
• a bread pan (the deep rectangular ones)

• 100g butter
• 180g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 200g floure
• 10cl milk
• 3 tea spoons of baking powder
• a lemon (if you can get one fresh from the garden without any chemical crap on it it's usually better ;) )
• 100g chocolate
• 10cl espresso
• a tea spoon of salt
• 50g white chocolate
• nuts

Here is what you do to prepare the batter. This is the base to do any cake of the sort. The flavoring then depends solely on you! :)

• Soften the butter by putting it in the microwave for a few seconds.
• In a bowl, mix the butter, the sugar and the salt with a fork. Do NOT use an electric whisk. Mix it well to obtain a very homogeneous batter (see picture on the right)
• Break the eggs and separate whites and yolks. Put the whites in a separate bowl. Put the yolks with the previous mix. Mix well.
• Add the baking powder and some flour. Mix well.
• Add some milk to render the batter softer and easier to mix.
• Add some more flour and milk. Keep on mixing the batter very well. Repeat. Make sure you reach a state where the batter is very homogeneous. 

Now that you are done with the batter you can flavor it with whatever you like. Here I will do half milk chocolate, half lemon. You can also do it orange flavored (just replace the lemon by an orange) or of course use any type of chocolate. You can also make it banana flavored, you just take 2 bananas, slice them up and warm them up in a pan until you get a juicy liquid with some bigger banana chunks. You can also add a yoghurt. Or just transform it into a carrot cake! Really, whatever fits your need, this is THE batter for EVERYTHING!


Anyway, so let me finish up the recipe for my choice of  flavoring with chocolate and lemon:

• Separate the batter into 2 equal portions. Put the other half in a third bowl.

The chocolate part: 

• Make the espresso and pour it in the smaller pot. Add the chocolate to it.
• Use the 2 pots to melt the chocolate/espresso using a bain-marie (water bath). Technically you can use a glass bowl and put it in a pot but it works way better when using 2 metal pots.
• Mix the melted chocolate to one of the half of the batter.
• Mix well. 

The Lemon part:

• Take the bowl with the other half of the batter. 
• Grate the lemon zest and add it to the batter.
• Press the lemon and add the juice to the batter.
• Mix well.

Make the batters fluffy:

• Add a pinch of salt to the whites.
• Beat the whites.
• Add delicately half of the whites to the chocolate batter, the other to the lemon batter.

And to finish:

• Butter well the bread pan and add some flour at the bottom and on the sides.
• Empty the lemon batter in the pan and then the chocolate batter on top of the lemon batter. You can exchange the order if you want a different pattern on the side. 
• Add a few nuts.
• Add some white chocolate chips.

• Put the pan in the oven for 50 to 55min MAXIMUM at 175°C.

Here you go!!! It's ready, and it's soooo yummy!!

Bon Appetit!!!