Thursday, April 05, 2012

No bake chocolate cake with walnuts and green figs

My Mom has a birthday today. Yesterday I decided to surprise her preparing a little birthday cake. And as you probably know, I am an obsessive chocolate eater. I always have a bar of chocolate in my office. And in my purse. And I also have a whole drawer full of different kinds of chocolate at home. My Mom is not such an addicted chocoholic, but she is definitely a passionate chocolate lover. So, my wondering what to prepare for my Mom's birthday lasted no more than five minutes. Something with lots of chocolate, with chocolate as the only ingredient if possible, but I highly doubt that there is such recipe. So the closest to this idea was something with only two ingredients - chocolate and heavy cream. No bake chocolate cake recipe I saw here made me want to try it immediately. After thinking five more minutes, I decided to add something from me - a nut layer, prepared from freshly roasted walnuts or almonds, mixed with sweet green figs. No sooner said than done. I took some walnuts, roasted and chopped them and mixed them with some preserved figs, also chopped. I lined a pan with this sticky mixture, pressed it good with my fingers and poured the chocolate-cream mixture over it. One night in the fridge and today-taraam! - here is your cake, Mom! Happy birthday! I love you so much!
P.S. We tasted the cake already. Mom says this is the best sweet thing she has ever tried. Melting chocolate pleasure accompanied by a crunchy nutty taste. 
I totally agree - this is a must-try recipe.

Ingredients:
  • 300 g 70% chocolate, chopped
  • 300 g heavy cream
  • a pinch of salt
  • butter to grease the pan
  • cocoa powder to serve
  • 250 g walnuts
  • 6-7 preserved green figs 


Preparation:

Put walnuts in a baking tray and roast walnuts for 10 minutes in an oven, preheated to 180 C. Set walnuts aside, let cool and chop. Take 6-7 preserved green figs from a jar, chop fine and mix with the walnuts. Spoon some of the fig syrup to the mixture and 2-3 Tbsp water  to adjust the consistency. You need to obtain a little sticky mixture. Line a springform pan or any other pan of your choice with parchment paper. Press the walnut mixture to cover good the bottom of the pan. Melt chocolate on water bath over medium heat. In another pan heat the heavy cream over medium heat. Remove from the heat when the cream gets hot and add the salt to it. Add chocolate to the cream and stir well. 
Pour into the pan, cover with plastic wrap and let chill overnight. Take out of the fridge about 10 minutes before serving. Dust with cocoa, slice and enjoy.


6 comments:

  1. First time here, you have a pretty blog. I'm not crazy about chocolate like many girls are, but this looks quite amazing. Happy birthday to your mom!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, leaf, it is very sweet of you!

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  2. This looks very delicious and simple, happy birthday to your mother!
    I loved your baking pan, where did you get it from?

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  3. Anonymous2/6/12 16:36

    I love your beautiful loaf pan/tin. Where did you get that from?

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  4. At first it looks like kit kat cake. But this is definitely one of a kind.

    Regards,
    Haley McAdams
    ISO Certification

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  5. Well, Haley, if it looks to you like a kit kat cake you should deffinitely look at it twice. It is made in a baking pan from melted high-cocoa content chocolate and lots of heavy cream. I cut it thin because it is very rich, probably that is the reason for your confusion.

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