Eggless Chocolate Almond Cake- Reine de Saba avec Glaçage au Chocolat-Julia Child's Cake Recipe

If you are a regular visitor of my blog, you would have noticed that I have not posted any recipes last week. I missed my group challenges and reveal dates. The reason is my daughter was down with fever and I was totally depressed without knowing the reason for this high fever. Though we visited a child specialist, even he didn't take any tests to identify the fever. At last, today he gave some tests to be done and she is diagnosed with typhoid. Even though she is still ill, we are relieved to know something about the fever and doctor has promised to cure it within a week. I prepared this cake last week when she had slight fever but couldn't post it when she became very sick. Today I got some time and thought of posting this wonderful recipe. 
I am part of a group Baking Partners in which a group of home bakers try out a recipe and post it together on the same day. For the first month, Swathi selected this Chocolate Almond Cake by the famous chef Julia Child. Any one who has seen the movie Julie and Julia Project will not ask about Julia Child. She is the cook book author who brought French Cooking to American Homes. August 15th is Julia Child's 100th birthday and Swathi wanted to post the recipes on that day to honour Julia Child. But as I couldn't post it on that day, I am posting it today. It is better late than never. 
This cake has three eggs and it was quite a challenge to substitute them in the recipe. This is my second attempt baking this cake. The first cake became flat once cooled and it was very mushy. The reason for the failure is very simple but I learnt it through the mistake. The eggs in the recipe makes the cake fluffy and also gives volume. So the amount of flour used is very less. When I substituted eggs, I also added 1/4cup more flour but it was not enough. Only that would result in sinking of the cake. So for my second attempt, I added more flour and it came out perfect. The cake was soft and firm and was wonderful with the chocolate icing. I decorated the cake with almonds and grated chocolate. I prepared the cake during night and frosted it the next day. It also tastes great when served chilled. But I prefer the unchilled version.


Ingredients:
For The Chocolate Almond Cake:
Bitter Sweet Chocolate-120gm
Instant Coffee Powder-1tsp
Water-2tbs
Butter-1/2cup
Powdered Sugar-2/3cup
Curd-1/2cup
Baking Soda-1/4tsp
Almond Meal-1/2cup ( to make home made almond meal click the link)
Maida/ All Purpose Flour-1 1/4cup
Baking Powder-1/2tsp
Corn Flour-1tbs
Almond Essence-1/2tsp

For The Chocolate Icing:
Bitter Sweet Chocolate-60gm
Instant Coffee Powder-1tsp
Water-2tbs
Unsalted Butter-5-6tbs

Procedure:
The Cake:
  1. Preheat oven to 180C.
  2. In a double boiler, melt chocolate.
  3. Mix water and instant coffee powder.
  4. Add this coffee mixture to the melted chocolate.
  5. In a bowl, add sugar and butter and beat until creamy.
  6. In a small bowl, mix curd and baking soda and leave it until frothy.
  7. Add this mixture to the butter sugar mixture along with almond essence and beat well.
  8. Add the chocolate coffee mixture to the ixture and beat until incorporated.
  9. In another bowl, add flour, corn flour and baking powder and mix well.
  10. Add this flour mix and almond meal to the butter chocolate mixture and fold it using a wooden spatula until incorporated.
  11. Grease and dust a 8” round cake tin.
  12. Pour the batter into it and level the top using the spatula.
  13. Place it in the middle rack and bake for 20-25minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
  14. Let the cake rest for 5minutes.
  15. Flip it on a wire rack and allow it to cool completely.

The Icing:
  1. In a double boiler, melt chocolate.
  2. Mix water and coffee powder.
  3. Remove it from the boiler and add the coffee to it.
  4. Mix well until creamy and dark brown.
  5. Place the bowl in a larger bowl containing water and ice cubes.
  6. Add a tbs of butter at a time and mix well until creamy.
  7. When the icing reaches a semi solid state and looks very creamy, remove from the bowl of water.
Assembling The Cake:
  1. Place the cake on a plate.
  2. Pour the icing on the cake.
  3. With an offset spatula, spread it all over the cake and cover the sides also.
  4. Decorate the cake with almond flakes and grated chocolate.
  5. Chill the cake for 30minutes.
  6. Slice it up and serve.

Cream butter, sugar and curd mixture. Add the melted chocolate mixture to it.



Mix well.



Add the flour mixture and almond meal.



Pour the prepared batter into a greased and dusted cake tin.



Cool the cake on a wire rack.



Prepare icing to slightly thicker than pouring consistency.



Pour it on the cake.



Spread the icing with a spatula.



Decorate with sliced almonds and grated chocolate.



Slice it up and serve.
Linking this to Kid's Delight- Chocolate hosted by Vaishali and started by Srivalli and Bake Fest hosted at Foodomania and started by Vardhini.

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