Chocolate Corks ~#TheCakeSliceBakers

These Chocolate Corks are also know as Bouchon au Chocolat. These little cakes have a brownie-like exterior 

and a molten chocolate interior, making them a perfect little mouthful of deliciousness.

 

The Cake Slice Bakers continue to bake through - Gateau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes by Aleksandra Crapanzano this year. Aleksandra, a James Beard Award–winning writer, shares her secrets of the cakes Parisians like to bake at home. Recipes such as a simple yogurt cake, a surprisingly easy Bûche De Noël, and Walnut Pear and Roquefort Madeleines will show you the surprising simplicity of a French cake.

The Cake Slice Bakers are a group of dedicated bakers who all love cake. Each year we choose a new cake-centric cookbook and bake our way through it. Every month we are given 3 choices and on the 20th day of each month we reveal what we have chosen on our blogs. This month's choices were Chocolate Corks, Blood Orange, Semolina and Almond Upside-Down Cake, and Flourless Brown Butter Hazelnut Torte.  I really wanted to bake the Hazelnut Torte but everywhere seemed to be out of stock with regards to hazelnuts when I was trying to bake, so I had to go with the Chocolate Corks instead.

These little cakes are quick to put together but I did have issue with them sticking to the pan, even though I made sure to butter then well. If I make them again I will most likely try to find a silicone mold and hopefully that will take out the stress of un-molding them.

Chocolate Corks/Bouchon au Chocolat

Printer Friendly Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons hot espresso
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon dark rum
• 115g bittersweet chocolate, around 70% cacao
• 90g (6 tablespoons) butter
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 35g (3 tablespoons) light brown sugar
• 50g (¼ cup) granulated sugar
• 40g (⅓ cup) cake flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 45g mini bittersweet chocolate chips or bittersweet chocolate
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 180℃ (350℉).
2. If using metal molds, butter them and if using silicone molds simply place them on a baking sheet.
3. Pour the hot espresso over the cocoa powder and stir to dissolve, then add the rum and stir to combine; set aside.
4. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate and butter together; remove from the heat.
5. In a stand mixer or using handheld electric beaters, whisk the egg to break it up.
6. Add the light brown and granulated sugars to the egg and whisk until homogenous.
7. Add the espresso-cocoa mixture and the butter chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and whisk until smooth.
8. Place a sieve over the mixing bowl and sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt, folding the dry ingredients into the batter with a rubber spatula.
9. Add the mini chocolate chips and fold them into the mixture.
10. Spoon the batter into the bouchon molds and bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean with only a few crumbs.
11. Transfer to a cooling rack.
12. After about 20 minutes, unmold the bouchons.
13. Serve them top side up, lightly dusted with the powdered sugar.

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is Gâteau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes by Aleksandra Crapanzano. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the links below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.

It is a new year and a new book - Gâteau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes - and our choices for March 2023 were ~

Chocolate Corks

• All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• A Little Bit of All Right
• Karen's Kitchen Stories

Blood Orange, Semolina and Almond Upside-Down Cake

• A Day in the Life on the Farm

Flourless Brown Butter Hazelnut Torte

• no one from the group choose to bake this cake