Saturday, February 28, 2009

The Daring Bakers - Chocolate Valentino and Fiori di Sicilia Frozen Yogurt


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.

I am so pleased to be a part of The Daring Bakers-an online group of very talented bakers. The group bakes one recipe each month, and we all post our finished goodies on the same day. This month the challenge was a Chocolate Valentino. It's a three-ingredient wonder that's sort of a cross between a cake and a tart. To me, it tastes like a giant truffle. It's moist and extremely dense. It's actually a very easy cake to make and quite a stunner to serve to friends and loved ones.

We were also required to make an ice cream. I chose to make frozen yogurt because I like the tartness of yogurt. Ice creams can just be too sweet sometimes. I used really good quality Greek-style yogurt-1 big container of plain and 1 big container of vanilla. I also added some Fiori di Sicilia as I find the smell and taste quite intoxicating. I've been putting it in most everything lately. Fiori di Sicilia is an Italian flavoring which is a combination of vanilla and citrus. It smells good enough to be a perfume.

The frozen yogurt was also made with just three ingredients: yogurt, sugar, and the orange-vanilla extract. I use about 1/4 cup of sugar for every 8 ounces of yogurt, and a big splash of the Fiori di Sicilia.



Since this cake is only made with eggs, chocolate and butter, it is very important that you use the best ingredients you can get your hands on. You want really high quality chocolate and butter, and organic free-range eggs (as always). I used mainly Valrhona bittersweet chocolate, but I also added some Lindt milk chocolate for a bit of extra sweetness.

To learn more about The Daring Bakers please see the site:
http://daringbakersblogroll.blogspot.com/2007/07/welcome.html

Here is the recipe for the Chocolate Valentino:


Or here:
Please check-out some of the beautiful goodies whipped up by other Daring Bakers!

3 comments:

  1. Looks delicious as always. :)

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  2. I wished you lived closer to us or vice versa so we can sample your desserts. They always look soooooooo good. I gave up chocolate for Lent so this looks even more tempting!

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  3. We both REALLY wish we lived closer so that we could see everyone much more often, especially the lovely Miss Marisa!

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