Chocolate Marquise

Sigh... it's been a weird start to 2010. The creative juices have slowed to a trickle and it's getting harder and harder to juggle the main part of my life with the blogging side of me. Don't get me wrong, I still love everything to do with it. I just wish that I could give 110% of myself to the blog 100% of the time. Anyway I'm just mumbling to myself so lets forget the whinging and...

I'll just do what I do best...

...stuff my face (and my troubles) with chocolate desserts!

Then I'll blog about it as if I'm on heat while I espouse erotic superlatives about how lustfully sweet and orgasmically wonderful chocolate is. Apparently (and seriously, I've been told this!), I tend to favour the term 'climax', or words to that effect, quite a lot in my blog and on Twitter whenever I'm raving about something delicious.

Oh my... is that true?!

Seriously rich and seriously good!

Easter is less than a month away and religious or not, this holiday is all about the almighty chocolate. Yes, it tastes better when it's in egg form but with the Autumn weather settling in, I want my chocolate cooked, baked or whipped. Or in this case, melted to a thick 'mousse' and encased in cake!

So here I give you a Chocolate Marquise - a recipe I've always wanted to try from Gourmet Traveller. Essentially, it's a chocolate mousse but forget light, airy and fluffy, this marquise is hard-hitting, dense and rich, almost like a thick chocolatey buttercream. Let's all take a moment to lament my burgeoning hips.

Chocolate Marquise... mid-demolition!

Forgive the lacklustre photos but this dessert was happily offloaded to a group of food bloggers so by the next day, all I had left of the 'chocolate meatloaf' (as lovingly penned by one lol) was the end nub.

Not that I'm complaining of course, because I'm supposed to be on a more healthier diet so any opportunity to give away lustrous desserts is a good thing believe it or not! And naturally, maintaining a baking blog isn't really conducive to my plans to reunite with my skinny jeans, especially when my love lies with the naughtiest of desserts. I'm running out of people to offload all these baked goods on so if you're in my hood and you're hungry, apply within and BYO takeaway containers! xx

Chocolate Marquise

(serves 8)

Sponge

3 eggs
140g caster sugar
75g plain flour
2 Tbl Dutch cocoa powder
30g butter, melted and slightly cooled

Marquise

300g of good quality dark chocolate (at least 60% cocoa solids), broken into pieces
175g unsalted butter
5 eggs, separated
100g caster sugar

For the chocolate sponge

Preheat oven to 220°C. Grease a 30 x 42cm baking tray and line the bottom with baking paper (I used two 30 x 20cm trays).

Whisk eggs and caster sugar with an electric mixer for about 8-10 minutes or until the mixture is pale and tripled in volume.

Sift over flour and cocoa powder and fold through gently. Fold through the melted butter until all combined.

Pour into prepared tray and level the top of the mixture. It will end up being a very thin layer in the tray but don't worry, it'll rise a little. Here, you want a sheet of sponge just under 1cm thick.

Bake for 4-5 minutes until the cake springs back when lightly touched. Turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Marquise

Melt butter and chocolate over very low heat in a heavy based saucepan or double boiler. Mix to combine and set aside.

Whisk egg yolks and sugar for 4-5 minutes with an electric mixer until pale and frothy. Stir through melted chocolate and butter until combined and set aside.

Whisk egg whites and a pinch of salt until firm peaks. Gently fold through the chocolate mixture.

To assemble

Line a straight-sided loaf tin (about 8 x 22cm) with clingwrap. Cut chocolate sponge to the fit the base and sides. Fill with the chocolate mixture.

Cut remaining sponge to cover the top. Cover with clingwrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight.

Carefully remove cake from mould and slice thickly with a hot knife.

Adapted from the ever fabulous Gourmet Traveller