France: Meal #3

My mother loves French things. Her birthday is in early July; in honor of that I delved into one of her books called "My French Kitchen" by Joanne Harris & Fran Warde. From it this meal was born. :)




raspberries from our garden



I set the table with white tulle. The vase contains opalescent pebbles, water, and hydrangeas.
Sasha (my sister) set presents on the table for my Mum.



3 flocked candles



I rescued chess pieces from a burn bin. More than one was pretty much unaffected; some were more charred than this one. I like the affect.



Roasted tomato tart



Green bean salad with pine nuts and feta



Gateau Lawrence



I put warmed peach jam over this rich choclate cake, and served it with homemade whipped cream and red/golden raspberries from our garden (picked by yours truly :).


Mine was done a little differently, but here is the recipe for this cake as found in the book.


Gateau Lawrence:

For the cake

6 1/2 ounces bittersweet (70 percent cocoa) chocolate

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unslated butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

1 2/3 cups (7 ounces) ground sliced almonds (grind in a food processor or blender)

4 large eggs, separated


For the icing

3 1/2 ounces bittersweet (70 percent cocoa) chocolate

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

The author recomended warmed apricot jam as a substitute for this icing.


Heat oven to 300 degrees F. Line a 10 inch springform pan with parchment paper. This includes the sides. What I did was simply take a large piece of parchment, mold it to the pan, and trim a little off the top. This looked simpler than their method, and worked well.
Chop the chocolate into small pieces and melt it in a heatproof bowl (I used a double boiler) over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat and cool until tepid.
Cream together butter and sugar until soft and creamy using an electric mixer. Add the ground almonds, egg yolks, and melted chocolate, and beat until evenly blended.
Whisk egg whites until stiff, add to the cake mixture, and quickly fold in until evenly mixed using a rubber spatula. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes. A light crust will form on the top and the middle should still be a little squishy. Leave to cool a little before carefully removing the sides. Cool on a wire rack. Slide a long knife under the cake to release it from the parchment, but leave the cake on the paper.
For the icing, melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over saucepan of simmering water. Spread evenly over the top of the cake and leave to set. Slide cake off of the parchment paper onto the serving platter. If you are anything like me, by following this method your cake would probably face trouble. After removing the sides and letting it cool for awhile, I recomend that you take your serving plate or cake stand and gently place your cake on it upside-down, then put you icing or jam on top. It's entirely up to you.

This is a very rich cake, and very delicious. I found it quite simple to make actually. Probably one of the biggest things would be to baby your chocolate while you're melting it, so that it won't burn.

This would be a great way to say "I love you" to someone or to celebrate an occasion.