Michel Guerard’s Mother’s Cake
To serve 8
10 ounces semisweet chocolate
10 ounces butter
9 egg yolks
1 1/3 cups sugar
5 egg whites
1/4 cup light rum
10″ pan
piece of cake cardboard – 10″
Preheat the oven to 325
Line the pan with parchment paper. Lightly butter the paper and put in some flour and shake all the flour out so only the flour that sticks to the butter remains.
Melt the chocolate with the butter in the top of a double boiler.
Separate the eggs. Put the 9 yolks in the bowl of the mixer. Put the 5 whites (notice that there are less whites) in another mixer bowl. MAKE SURE THAT THE BOWL WITH THE WHITES IS VERY CLEAN WITHOUT ANY GREASE. ALSO DO NOT GET ONE BIT OF YOLK INTO THE WHITES OR THE WHITES WON’T BEAT. The trick to doing this is to put the white of each egg in a small container, then add to the mixing bowl of whites. That way if you are on the 5th egg and you get a speck of yolk in it – you throw away only that egg not the whole bowl.
Using an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, mix the egg yolks to break up at low speed. Turn up the speed to medium and gradually add the sugar. Cream or beat the egg yolks and sugar until it is pale( almost white) and creamy. (from 5 to 8 minutes).
Put the mixer on medium low speed and beat the chocolate mixture into the yolk mixture. Blend well. Take a spatula and mix by hand to make sure that the everything is really mixed.
Using the balloon whip attachment, beat the egg whites until they hold a shape. I beat with the mixer until I get very soft peaks, then using a hand whisk, I finish beating. DO NOT OVERBEAT!!!! You want it to look like soft clouds; they hold a shape, but they are not grainy looking.
Fold the the egg whites into the chocolate mixture.
Pour 2/3’s of the mixture into the pan (SAVE THE REST OF THE BATTER – just put it aside at room temperature) and bake for 1 hour. Remove cake from oven and place on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Unmold the cake by placing the cardboard on top of the cake, turn it upside down and the cake should fall out of the pan onto the cardboard.
Let the cake cool completely. When cool, sprinkle the top of the cake with rum. Frost the cake( top and sides) with the batter that you saved. Put the cake in the refrigerator. When the chocolate is firm (about 1 hour) put saran wrap or tin foil over the cake gently so as not to ruin the top of the cake. The cake will keep for 1 week in the refrigerator.
Refined Palate 