The Daring Bakers challenge this month was a wonderful flourless chocolate cake! This was way too easy; and I really appreciated the fact it only had three ingredients! Who new something so good would go together so easily. I can't have any until Saturday night, so DH is the taste tester for this post. 
I used my square muffin pans to make individual servings and the pans worked out very well. I saw these pans at Target and waited till they went on sale, so of course I bought two! Used Bakers Joy to spray the pans and they released perfectly, no buttering, flouring or papering required. They rose nicely in the oven and fell just like a flourless cake should, nice and dense.
Chocolate Valentino Cake Recipe, adapted from Chef Wan.
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated
Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.
Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190CBake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.
After seeing these beautiful strawberries, at my local stand, I just knew I had to make Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream. I was very happy I bought a half flat because I ate quit a few berries while I was baking. OMG, this was so good, and I only get one serving with my cake. I made the custard base the night before and churned it the next day; I think this helped bring out the flavor of the strawberries. This recipe calls for the juice of one lemon and one orange; I was hesitant to use this much juice, but it really brightened the strawberry flavor. The recipe I used was from The Chocolate Gourmand. I followed the recipe as written except added the milk and cream together instead whipping the cream separately; I also added about one cup of chopped strawberries during the final 10 minutes of churning. I used my silicone heart pans to mold the ice cream into perfect portions.
