Peruvian Noir Chocolate

Absolutely! Actual baking time may differ based on your pan size, shape and material. There are some basic rules: 1. A round baking pan may easily be replaced by a similar sized square pan. 2. ⁠In general, cakes baked in smaller pans take longer to bake than cakes baked in larger pans. It’s all about how much surface area is directly exposed to heat. 3. Cakes bake faster in metal pans as compared to ceramic pans since metals conduct heat better. Ceramic pans aren’t my baking material of choice but will certainly work for your dessert here.

For best experience, I’d recommend using unsalted butter. Your dry mix contains salt already and using salted butter may throw the delicate balance of the recipe off.

Mix the wet and dry ingredients together until you get a uniform mixture. No dry pockets of dry flour should be visible. Remember to be gentle with the mixture at this point- stop using any stand mixers/hand mixers/whisks at this point and shift to gentle folding method using a silicon spatula (explained in the process video as well)

About 5 minutes before the suggested baking time in the instructions, poke the center of the cake gently with a skewer or a fork. If you see any wet/semi-wet batter on the skewer, return the cake to the oven in small time increments of 2-5 minutes. Your cake is done when your skewer comes out mostly clean. Few dry crumbs attached to it are ok.

Your package should come with 1 suitable sized parchment paper. If you need more, you could just use any flavorless oil to grease your pan really really well. Coat all the sides and the bottom. Your cake should easily pop off once you use a knife along the edge of your pan.

You would definitely need a baking pan, a stove pan, measuring scale or measuring cups & spoons. Most other tools can be replaced with suitable replacements from your kitchen.

For best experience, make sure to get your ingredients to room temperature before you start your baking adventure. This goes for everything you’d normally store in a refrigerator e.g. milk, yogurt, eggs, butter, etc. However, in this recipe you can relax about everything except the yogurt, that needs to be at room temperature. We are going to put the butter and milk on the stove anyway. The yogurt should take about an hour to come to room temperature when left on your kitchen counter.

You want to just melt all of the butter- you aren’t trying to bring it to a boil. Start by putting your butter on the stove at medium low heat or in your microwave for 20 seconds. I also like to break my butter in small pieces to allow for even heat distribution. Keep checking often and give it a quick stir. I actually like to stop when most of my butter is melted- the residual heat ends up melting the remaining small pieces, if any.

Smoothen out the top of your batter by using the silicon spatula or the back of a spoon. You could also bang your pan on the counter a few times to make sure the batter disperses evenly in the pan.

Each oven is different and baking times differ for a variety of reasons. It’s generally a good idea to set the oven timer for the lower limit of the suggested time and then do the skewer test once the timer runs out. Just bake till you don’t see wet batter on your skewer. Dry crumbs are perfectly fine!

Whisk, whisk and whisk some more. The sauce is designed to thicken once heated, keep stirring and whisking often to avoid lumps. Break small flour pockets using your spatula/whisk and gently scratch the surface of your pan to avoid flour from sticking and forming lumps later.

It is normal to find a thin “solid” layer on the top of your chocolate sauce once it is done cooling. Just give it a couple of whisks again and it should come right back to a pourable consistency

You could use anything that you love with chocolate flavor in general. Nuts, seeds, or even sprinkles.

This cake will stay well in the refrigerator for about 3 days when stored in an airtight container.

The cake will taste the best right after it’s baked and topped with the chocolate sauce. However, for similar results you can put the cake at room temperature for an hour before you plan on consuming it. You could also microwave it for 5-10 seconds! I wouldn’t recommend consuming it straight out of the refrigerator for a flawless experience. 🙂