Chocolate-Espresso Cake
Presiding over five restaurants and six kitchens, Chef Todd Weisz still has time to poke fun at south Florida’s reputation for storms, creating what he calls “a hurricane” — a swirling bull’s-eye of sauces — on the dessert plates to garnish his soft-centered chocolate-espresso cake. With their low-fat milk and whole-wheat flour, these cakes are a relatively healthy alternative to the usual dessert choices.
Ingredients
- Mango-Ginger Sauce
- Mango - 1, peeled, pitted, and cubed
- Orange Juice - 1/2 cup
- Ginger - 1 tablespoon, grated
- Chocolate-Espresso Cake
- Semi-sweet chocolate - 8 ounces
- Low-fat milk - 1/4 cup
- Unsalted Butter - 1/4 cup
- Sugar - 3/4 cup
- Eggs - 2
- Espresso or very strong black coffee - 1/2 cup
- Whole-wheat Flour - 1-1/2 cups
- Sherry - 1/4 cup
- Baking Soda - 1 teaspoon
- Garnishes
- Mango Purée - 1/2 cup
- Raspberry Purée - 3/4 cup
- Blackberry Purée - 1 cup
- Mixed Fruits - 4 cups, such as sliced strawberries, pineapple chunks, blackberries, and melon balls
- Mint sprigs - 8
Instructions
To make the sauce: Combine the ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes, until the mango breaks up. Purée the mixture, then strain through a fine-meshed sieve. Set aside to cool.
To make the cakes: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray brioche or other fluted molds with cooking oil spray and wipe away any excess. Put the molds on a baking sheet. Put the chocolate and milk in a stainless steel bowl over simmering water (do not let the water touch the bottom of the bowl) and melt the chocolate. Add the butter and sugar and stir the mixture together with a spatula. It will be quite stiff. Remove the bowl from the heat and quickly whisk in the eggs. Whisk in half of the espresso and half of the flour, stirring with the whisk until well blended. Stir in the remaining espresso and flour. Add the sherry and baking soda and stir to blend well. Fill the molds to within half an inch of the top with batter. Bake 8 to 9 minutes; the centers should still be soft. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool slightly.
To serve: Put the purées in separate squeeze bottles. Squeeze a quarter-sized circle of mango sauce in the center of a dessert plate. Draw a circle of raspberry purée around the mango sauce, touching it. Draw a circle of blackberry purée around the raspberry purée, creating a bull’s-eye design. Tap the plate in the center of the bottom to make sure the purées are all touching. Holding the plate firmly in two hands, rotate the plate horizontally 90 degrees, then snap your hands back to the beginning position, causing the purées to rotate into a slight swirl on the plate. Do this twice. Repeat with remaining plates. Unmold the cakes and place one beside each swirled design. Garnish with a mixture of fresh fruit and a mint sprig.
