Savory Sunday - Chocolate Breakfast Cake with Rice Milk

There is one cake recipe I risk making once every blue moon. Trouble is, I'm terrible when it comes to baking. However, when I'm not forgetting ingredients like baking power or sugar, or forgetting the damn thing in the oven, this cake is amazing. Plus, it's made with rice flour and rice milk instead of cows milk.

Making this cake is simple and simultaneously tricky. What makes it challenging is one, I've never had the recipe written down and two, when it comes to the baking phase, I end up winging it. And if you bake then you know you never "wing" anything. 

Here are the ingredients: (Remember, I've never had the exact measurements because I never bothered writing them down. Therefore, I use a tall glass for measuring: 1 part  = one large glass. Just respect the proportions and it'll be fine.)

3 to 4 eggs depending on size
1 part raw sugar 
1 part coconut shavings
2 parts rice flour
2 parts rice milk
100 g of dark chocolate
1 small packet of baking powder
pinch of salt (fleur de sel if you have it)

Preheat oven.
Melt the chocolate in the rice milk. In a large bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients together. Pour the chocolate and rice milk mix in with the rest of the ingredients. Mix well. Pour the whole lot into a cake mold and stick it in the oven. This is where things get tricky. I'm not sure exactly how long it should cook. What I do is stick it in the oven for about 20 minutes. Sometimes I lower the temperature a few degrees, don't ask me why I do that because sometimes I forget and it doesn't seem to change things much.

God, Elise. These are the worst directions ever for making a cake.
Give me a break. I'm a pantser even in the kitchen and this cake is fab...Granted, when I'm not screwing it up.  

So after about 20 minutes, I'll stab the cake with a knife to check if it's cooked. If it looks done, I'll turn off the oven, pull out the cake and let it cool before de-molding. Actually, that's a big fat lie. I turn off the oven and leave it in there until I can get back to it later. Nine out of ten times it comes out burned on top, but it's still damn good cake.

A few things to keep in mind. If you're used to highly sweeten cakes, you probably won't care much for this. But, I guess you could always add more sugar. And though it's a moist cake (sorry for you folks that cringe at the word moist), it's not your typical light, airy, fluffy kiddie cake. It's dense. Really dense, the black hole of cakes kind of dense. One descent slice for breakfast with coffee or tea should do. Also, it's a nice substitute for all you poor lactose intolerant people out there, or those who simply want to reduce your dairy intake.

Okay, that's it for today. Enjoy your Sunday and Bon Appétit! 

Savory Sunday: Beer and Chocolate

We had friends over for dinner last week and for l'apéro, I thought it'd be fun to do a little beer tasting. Back in college, I came to appreciate all kinds of beers and really miss the microbreweries of the States. Unfortunately, since I moved to France, I haven't had a lot of opportunity to drink beer. As a consequence, I know very little about European beers. Anyway, I thought I'd go out and grab some random bottles at our local beer store (which is huge btw) to sample with friends. This is what I ended up with:  

My favorites were the first two on the left and the last on the right .

Abbaye des Rocs a dark Belgium beer (9 %), Tripel Karmeliet (8.4%) a Belgium light beer that claims their 3 grain beer recipe dates back to the 17th century in the Carmes de Termonde monastery. And lastely, Chimay (9%) another Belgium dark beer  brewed by Trappist monks of the Abbaye de Scourmont.  

The Quintine (8%) was a light beer and the only reason I got it is because I like the label. Serves me right, it really does taste like witches brew. The Timmermans (4.5%) was a bit too aggressive to my liking as far as taste, and the Goliath (9%) was so strong  I ended up watering the weeds with what was left in my glass. 

If anyone has any suggestions I should try let me know. Got any favorites?

And for you non-alcoholic / chocolate fans, here's something really simple to make and an instant smile generator no matter what time of year. Make hot chocolate and use a tooth pic to skewer two marshmallows and pinch them to the edge of your mug. See, you're smiling already. (:

My kids love this. Even in the summer, it's a hit.