6 April 2011

Fallen Chocolate Cake with Cherry Red Wine Sauce for 100 Miles of Flavour

Fallen Chocolate Cake with Cherry Red Wine Sauce

We are so glad you have decided to join us once again for our Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club. This is a monthly event where 5 ladies and one gent in two neighbouring countries get together to create a delicious meal with a theme in mind. We are now in our second year and continue to share a love for Cooking Light magazine which has an emphasis on healthy eating and living. This is a team effort where we combine what Cooking Light readers like best...good food with great company!!! Every month millions of readers turn to Cooking Light for recipes, advice on nutrition and fitness. This months theme "100 Miles of Flavour" was chosen by Jerry of Jerry's Thoughts, Musings and Rants to highlight local ingredients from each of our corners of the world.


Canada is a relatively new country and our cuisine is still in its youth. Wineries, craft breweries and artisanal cheese makers are emerging and adding a new dimension to our native cuisine, enriching it and extending it well beyond it's traditionial boundaries. West coast salmon, New Brunswick lobster, Ontario cheddar are all being paired with wonderful Canadian wines and locally harvested fruits and vegetables. Foodies are in heaven and locavores are finally coming into their own.

As environmental issues create awareness of the high cost of transporting our food from distant farms, even from other continents, a new movement began to encourage consumption of locally-grown foods.  The added benefit is that items are picked closer to their peak of freshness, enhancing taste, texture, and nutrition, and have had less time to spoil increasing shelf life in your kitchen. This awakening spawned a book, "The 100-Mile Diet," a memoir by a Canadian Vancouver couple who, for a year, ate only what was grown, raised or fished within a 100-mile (160 kilometres) radius of their home.

The average North American meal travels 2,400 km to get from field to plate and contains ingredients from 5 countries in addition to our own... that’s a lot of “food miles!!!!!” When you eat locally, you eat what's in season.  You'll remember that strawberries are the taste of summer.  Even in the winter, comfort foods like squash soup and pancakes just make sense...a lot more sense than flavourless fruit from the other side of the world. This is hard to do all year round when you live in the "Great White North" but we support our local producers as much as humanly possible. On a personal level I try and buy local but sometimes it is too hard to resist produce such as those gorgeous California strawberries so prevalent on the grocery shelves right now...and at such a good price too.

Lets see what we have cooked up for you for this months theme. If you would care to join in either link your post using local ingredients or add your link to the Linky tool below.

First of all Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen starts our 100 Miles of Flavour menu off by highlighting local blueberries and honey from her home State of Georgia with a tantalizing salad of Mixed Greens with Blueberry Vinaigrette.  

To amp up our 100 Miles of Flavour menu Jamie of Mom's Cooking Club compliments the menu with an appetizer of  Grilled Ginger-Lime Shrimp highlighting Gulf of Mexico seafood from her native Florida.

Jerry of  Jerry's Thoughts, Musings and Rants brings the King of entrees highlighting  province of Ontario beef and red wine from the Niagara region with Beef Tenderloin with Mushroom-Red Wine Sauce. I can imagine the tender meat with luscious gravy!

Roz of La Bella Vita  compliments our meal with that WOW factor with a side of Risotto with Porcini Mushrooms and Marscapone Cheese made with local rice from the State of South Carolina. Creamy risotto would compliment any meal!!!

Next Sandi of The Whistlestop Cafe wowed us with a salad of Peas and Orzo with Pesto highlighting basil and peas from her garden and substituting Southern pecans for the walnuts.

To accompany our meal I brought along an outstanding dessert of Fallen Chocolate Cake with Cherry Red Wine Sauce with cherries and red wine from the Okanagan Valley here in British Columbia. Whether it was the advent of the 100-Mile Diet that started it, or the migration of "slow food" from Europe to North America, or even our growing frustration with the perils of processed food, something is cooking right here in the Okanagan. Farmer's markets are rising in popularity, our wineries have emerged from a place of vineyards to homes of fine cuisine, and pressure is mounting on local stores to bring in local, and organic. Our food is in transition.

This moist, dense, rich cake contains no flour or other grains, making it appropriate for Passover or a 100 Mile Supper. This cake uses a total of 7 eggs so be prepared!!! To achieve the cake's fudgy texture, be sure to pull it from the oven when a wooden pick comes out nearly clean. You can prepare and chill the sauce a day ahead. It's like a huge fudgy brownie only better!!!! Serve with the sauce warm or cold. With only 262 calories per serving this cake is a winning combination.


 Notice the cake platter that I won from Mari of Once Upon a Plate from CSN Stores. It comes in very handy!!!

**Fallen Chocolate Cake with Cherry Red Wine Sauce**

Sauce:

2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup kosher red wine
1 pound frozen pitted unsweetened cherries

Cake:

1/2 cup shelled pistachios (you could also use sliced almonds)
Cooking spray
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
1/4 cup water
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped ( I prefered to use semi-sweet or milk chocolate for a less bitter flavour)
Dash of salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
4 large egg whites

To prepare sauce, combine the first 3 ingredients in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer until reduced to 2 cups (about 30 minutes). Chill.

Preheat oven to 350°.

To prepare cake, place pistachios in a food processor; process until finely ground. Sprinkle ground pistachios over bottom of a 9-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray.

Combine 1 cup sugar and water in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Remove from heat; stir in chocolate and salt, stirring until chocolate melts. Add cocoa, stirring with a whisk until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, stirring well after each addition. Stir in extracts.

Beat egg whites with a mixer at high speed until foamy. Gradually add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Gently stir one-fourth of egg white mixture into chocolate mixture; gently fold in remaining egg white mixture. Spoon mixture into prepared pan. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out nearly clean. Cool to room temperature; run a knife around outside edge. Serve with sauce.

You are reading this post on More Than Burnt Toast at http://morethanburnttoast.blogspot.com. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the author and or owner of More Than Burnt Toast. All rights reserved by Valerie Harrison. Best Blogger Tips

27 comments:

  1. This cake looks really delicious. I love that it doesn't contain any flour and the pistachios are a real surprise on the bottom. The sauce sounds great too.
    Beautiful post!

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  2. It is indeed difficult to NOT buy fruits that are out of season locally. In do try to buy from local sources as much as possible, though.
    The Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club is such fun to read about, Val. And I love your addition this meal. Very unusual with the red wine cherry sauce!
    I love those flourless cakes!

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  3. How charming that little layer of bright green is, Val! :-) The red wine cherry sauce makes me smile so big. I can just imagine how rich and perfect it is along that lovely cake.

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  4. i would walk one hundred miles for that cake!

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  5. I would love a slice with my coffee right now... it looks wonderful.

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  6. This cake is really interesting and looks delicious! The sauce is a perfect accompaniment.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  7. Cherries and red wine do compliment each other so well and now I can make a sauce with it...fabulous idea. The chocolate part is the bonus ;o)

    Have a great day Val.

    Ciao for now and flavourful wishes,
    Claudia

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  8. Your cake is absolute gorgeous. I really like the plate that you won. Fabulous meal.

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  9. I love local BC cuisine. I'm already looking forward to spot prawns and cheese! And wondering how safe it really is to pack wine in my suitcase.

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  10. mmm...this is a dessert that would tempt me...flourless chocolate and that cherry wine sauce is very tempting.

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  11. All of these recipes show that eating local can be absolutely delicious! That cake is quite glamorous and absolutely hypnotizing!

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  12. Oh my goodness, chocolate and cherries my 2 favorite combinations..this looks absolutely delicious.

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  13. That cake under the cherry wine sauce is impossible to not try. I brought back some super chocolate from my trip and it's keeps screaming out to "make me into something". I think this may be it.

    Best,
    Bonnie

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  14. Val~ this looks awesome! I have enjoyed everyone's local dishes.
    Jerry's idea was brilliant!
    The spacing on my blog is all messed up... but with the week I've had I am just glad to be joining y'all for our virtual supper.

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  15. oh what a great recipe and gorgeous cake.I seriously want a piece now!

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  16. This was such an enjoyable theme, Val. I really love everyone's recipes that they chose using one of their native ingredients. What a great idea. I seem to have entered my post incorrectly to the linky. Instead of my blog post link, it goes to the 'my recipes' link. Can you delete it and I can re-enter it correctly? sorry about not doing that quite right!

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  17. What a brilliant way to finish off our dinner. I have such a weekness for the cobination fo chocolate and cherries - I know I could never resist this. Better not attempt the recipe until AFTER I have shed my 'San Francisco' weight. SIGH

    Great post - loved the information about how far food travels to get to our plates. It is downright scary when you think about it . . . especially given the price of fuel.

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  18. Oh and Val, your cake looks incredible and I'd just love to bite into a slice right now! Mmmm, looks yummy!

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  19. I love your virtual supper club! Getting together with friends, even virtually, makes supper much more fun. Your cake is gorgeous!

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  20. This cake sounds incredible and I just love the sound of the cherry red wine sauce, excellent!

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  21. Chocolate and pistachios are two of my favorite things. I want to reach into the computer and grab this cake.

    Eating locally is hard. It's a good payoff though.

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  22. what a stellar cake, val, and the sauce ain't too shabby either. this is certainly a keeper.

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  23. Everything looks delicious and the thought behind them is wonderful. Another delicious-sounding chocolate cake!

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  24. Your cake looks so rich and fudgy. And I love the cherry sauce with it. Thanks for bringing another wonderful dish to our supper club.

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  25. I fell in love with your cake !! it is stunning & really irresitible

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  26. This cake is UNVELIEVABLE!!! HOnestly I can't wait to try it!!! I am new here. I just found you and so happy I did! NIc eto meet you

    xoxox Hanna

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Welcome to my home. Thank you for choosing to stay a while and for sharing our lives through food. I appreciate all your support, comments, suggestions, and daily encouragement.

Val

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