The Daring Bakers Embrace Chocolate! And Remember to Enter the Giveaway!

***Remember to enter the cookbook giveaway!*** *** UPDATE ON MARCH 11, 2009 – WE HAVE A WINNER!!! ikkinlala from Canada!****

A bit late, but better late than never! The official challenge:

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

The cake is flourless, and calls for one full pound of chocolate.  I cut that in half, baked the whole thing in a small sheet pan, then cut out the heart shape that you see above. You can find the recipe on Wendy and Dharm’s blogs.

Our hosts were quite generous this month, and allowed us to make any ice cream or topping that we liked.  In a further effort to reduce the fat in our diets (is that crazy or what?  I’m a member of Tuesdays with Dorie AND the Daring Bakers!), I went with a homemade passion fruit sorbet.  Basically, I made a loose passion fruit curd then froze it in my freezer.  The tart, refreshing sorbet provided a great contrast to the intense chocolate flavor of the cake.  If you make this, be sure to pick a chocolate that you love because the flavor really comes through (I used Valrhona 70% cacao that I bought at Trader Joe’s).  This cake is intense.  And delicious!

To see what the other Daring Bakers made, be sure to check out the blogroll!