Baking with Chef Judy - Zuchinni Chocolate Cake

If you have been reading my post, here is the recipe as promised. As mentioned in my previous post, I woke up early last Sunday (17 Jun 2012) for a delicious duck rice brunch and made my way to Creative Culinaire to attend an exclusive day with Chef Judy for a hands-on baking class that was was invited by The Rolleyes for the soft launch of their new video F&B review site. You can read more about The Rolleyes >> Here.



Chef Judy of Caffe Pralet and Creative Culinaire The School, Guinness Book of Records title holder shared the secrets of cooking and baking.


Together with her team of Chefs, demonstration / hands on classes are held here.


Chef Judy is proud of her Zuchinni Chocolate Cake that is one of the popular and best seller cake in her cafe.


Yes, raise your eyebrown, I thought the pairing of chocolate and zucchini in a cake is one strange and unusual combination too. But do you know batter type of cake contain 200% fats (butter, oil, shortening)? The big advantage of using grated zucchini is that it provides some of the moistness, allowing you to reduce the overall amount of butter and it is low Calorie!

Chef Judy even show us how she made her creative cabbage zuchinni chocolate cake!


Are you feeling excited now? Here is the recipe provided by Chef Judy with my adds on tips and steps for making the Ganache which is not included in the recipe print out.

Recipe: Zuchinni Chocolate Cake
Makes: 16 domed shaped moulds / cupcakes / 7" round cake

Ingredients for Zuchinni Chocolate Cake:
• 308g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 230g unsalted butter (ideally at 90c to create stable bubble)
• 172g light brown sugar (i use 155g)
• ½ tsp salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 224g grated zucchini
• 90g chocolate chip (preferably dark chocolate)
• 50g toasted walnuts (coarsely chopped)


Ingredients for Ganache:(optional but preferably for a rich, luxurious confection)
• 100g 50% dairy cream
• 100g dark couverture chocolate


Method for Cake:
1. Preheat oven at 175C

2. Sift self-raising flour & baking soda.


3. Cream butter, light brown sugar and salt till light.
(use speed 1 for 15sec, speed 2 until smooth and even colour for about 3mins)
(if the mixture doesn't drop off easily, means blend not enough)


4. Add in the eggs, one at a time (using speed 1 for about 2-3mins for each egg), add in vanilla essence.


5. Toss the chocolate chips and zucchini with about 2 tbsp of the flour mixture.


6. Mix in the remaining of the flour into the butter mixture (divide into 3 portion, do not over mix!).

7. Add in walnuts (15 sec) and zucchini mixture (15sec).

8. Fill moulds till 3/4 full and bake for 20mins at 175C.

(photo credit to The Rolleyes)

9. Allow to cool before glazing with chocolate.



Method for Ganache:
1. Chopped the chocolate into small pieces, if yours is in chunk/block and place in a medium sized heatproof bowl.

2. Bring the dairy cream just to a boil over medium-high heat (can also heat the cream in the microwave).

3. Immediately pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and allow to stand for 5mins. Stir gently with a spoon or whisk until smooth without overworking. The mixture should begin to appear glossy, a good sign that the suspension is stable.

4. If desired, add ½ tbsp of your favorite liqueur (rum/brandy).

5. Allow ganache to cool before pouring over cakes as a glaze



Note:
if using domed shaped mould/cake - place on wire rack over a tray to catch any drips. Pour ganache over and use a spatula to spread evenly if need)

if using muffin case, try not to overturn and dip the top over the ganache as the cake might fall off from the case or break as it is very soft. use spoon to spread evenly on top.

for piping or frosting, double the recipe, allow the ganache to completely cool and set up. The longer you allow the ganache to cool, the thicker it will set. You set put in the refrigerator to speed up but not too long or it will get harden. When you are able to spoon the ganache and it can hold its texture, it is ready for piping.

for storage, can be left outside in room temperature for up to 2-days for freshness.

Recipe inspired by: Chef Judy of Caffe Pralet and Creative Culinaire

Here are some photos during our hands-on class.

Ingredients that was weighted and prepared beforehand.


We were divide into a groups of 4 and this was my team members ACES = AspirantSG, CelestialDelish, Estherxie, and S was Esther's boyfriend.


The rooms are filled with enthusiasm bloggers and mummies.


My team-mates getting busy while I quickly took a snap.


Chef Judy and I


While waiting for our cake to be ready in the oven, we hop over to Café Pralet a casual dining cafe set up by Chef Judy.


Some snack prepared for us.

I loves the egg white marble sponge cake, airy, soft and not so sweet. The rich, dense and moist pralet was good too, but a little (a little) too sweet.

So busy team building and eating, lolz (photo credit to The Rolleyes)


This domed version was baked by Chef Judy.


And the cupcake version by me!


There is no way anyone can taste the zucchini in there, as it melds with the batter and disappears.

One of moistest cakes I've ever tried! Still moist even the next day!

I sure have a fun time baking together with Chef Judy, The Rolleyes Teams and all the bloggers. (Photo credit to The Rolleyes)