Warm Chocolate Cake... We can do this at home...

"No, no se puede"...that is what I said to myself when I had that cutie the first time in my life at Vong, NYC, one of the Jean Georges restaurants, which has been closed recently. Then I saw the book, then the recipe in the book, and the next thing I did was melting a of piece chocolate on the stove. I did not know until then how simple it was to make that cake.

Google "chocolate molten cake" or "lava cake", you will come up with many similar recipes. Better yet, Jean Georges' full recipe and instructions are here; I will write them down here later if the link is removed. Instead, I will talk about my adventure with the cake. If all you need is a recipe, you don't need anything else than clicking on the link above, some good quality chocolate, unsalted butter and some stuff you can find in your pantry. Otherwise keep reading to discover the rational psychopath cook in me.

This is a cake that I have baked many times under various conditions, using different utensils, different ingredients, different locations on the planet; it has always come out absolutely delicious, a very versatile cake indeed. And no need for preparation beforehand, except shopping for chocolate, butter and ice cream. We always start preparing it after finishing the entree. Sometimes we even pause the movie in the middle, Daisy and I give each other a look and there we go, we have the cake in front of the TV in 15-20 minutes. Absolute simplicity, absolute delicacy, no magic... Well actually, the whole thing is magic and Jean-Georges hides no tricks...

If you want to master something, you cannot do it by simply sitting on your ass thinking and dreaming about it. You need to walk the walk, most importantly walk the footsteps of the masters and reproduce their masterpieces. That is exactly what I have tried to do with this cake. Although this cake works wonders in any mold or ramekin, I would bake it in the same star shaped mold that JG serves at his restaurants. So I once measured the cake that I ordered at JG. No, of course I did not take a measure out of my pocket, I used a piece of paper to mark the measures on, which I carried with me wherever I go for sometime. The measurement part was easy. The difficult part was to find the mold. The ones I located would either be small or have too many flutes. That also became a mission-impossible in Turkey. Being aware of the problem, apparently Daisy's aunt bought some molds. Nope. Finally Daisy spotted one in NYC, I checked the measures, and yes it would do the job, a 4 inch brioche mold with 10 flutes.

The next thing was the chocolate. JG himself says that he uses Valrhona and everybody cites Valrhona thereafter. If there is one thing that matters most in that recipe, it is actually not the brand of the chocolate, but the percentage of the cacao in the chocolate. To some, the difference between a 56% and 70% may be like the difference between 1 tsp of cayenne and 2 tsp of cayenne. But nobody mentions about the percentage. Folks, keep your breath: 72%... yes, "72%, to be exact" is what the waiter at JG told me after he checked with the pastry chef inside after I gave him the look after he said "between 70-80%" when I inquired about the percentage with him. So this is sound knowledge that you will not be able to find elsewhere. But then, it is my obsession to walk through the exact foo'd'steps of the master. It does not really matter much as long as you are happy with the taste; I have tried it with other good quality chocolates, it has always come out delicious.

One does not always learn everything from masters though. A great trick in the link above is to replace flour with cacao powder while butter&flouring the molds. I don't like the white flour residues in the finished product and that is a great solution...

Don't be a psycho, like me, find yourself some good chocolate bar, good unsalted butter, absolutely fresh eggs, a ramekin (a round 4oz ramekin measures about 3 inches in diameter and 2 inches in depth) and indulge yourself in some warm chocolate cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The only trick you need is.... you know your oven better than JG does, so experiment with the timing. But don't be afraid of undercooking it. If there is one thing that could destroy the cake, it would be baking it 30 seconds longer...

Finally, the legend says that JG invented this cake by mistake, apparently he took it out of oven a little early while trying to come up with something else. Can we bake it at home with the same level of sophistication and delicacy? If he can do it by mistake, with the recipe at hand folks, yes we can...