Time to celebrate: Olivia’s chocolate cake

As we have probably already mentioned, it’s been a busy but fun few months getting everything organized around our two new products, The Choice Box and The Classic Box.

This week is the launch week! We’re so excited! (I know, we have probably already mentioned that a few times as well…!)

We will still stay busy, of course, making sure that everything goes as smoothly as planned. But, at the end of this week, Hello Chef is definitely celebrating! And there is certainly going to be a cake involved!

To honour Hello Chef’s head chef and founder Olivia, we baked a dense and moist French style chocolate cake.

“As time goes by I prefer dark chocolate more and more over dairy chocolate”, says Olivia. “Quality is important. I would rather have much less of it but for it to be premium, fine and only with simple add-ons such as orange, mint, chilli or sea salt.”

That is not necessarily the case with the rest of Olivia’s family.

“My kids have no standards!” Olivia laughs. “They eat any kind of chocolate. And my husband is addicted to Nutella, which is now banned from our household.”

“But, I am lucky as I have a very grateful audience, and my chocolate cakes are always everyone’s favourites. Simple chocolate brownies and chocolate chip cookies are a regular treat that we bake with the kids. Last week I made a chilli chocolate vegan cake that was divine!”

Olivia always celebrates with cakes, and she always bakes them herself.

“I would never really buy desserts. I show love by baking.”

And what does she prefer to have with her chocolate cake?

“Bubbles, of course!”

Olivia’s French Chocolate Cake with Oranges

Serves 8

Cooking time 35 min

Ingredients:

200g butter

200g dark chocolate (60-70%)

1 3/4 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 Tbsp all-purpose flour

½ tsp fleur de sel or gourmet salt (for example Maldon)

knob of butter, for cake pan

fine breadcrumbs, for cake pan

Orange sauce:

6 oranges

1/2 cup sugar

2 star anise

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Lightly grease a medium springform cake pan, and sprinkle it with some breadcrumbs.

Melt butter and chocolate gently on a stove or in a microwave oven. Let cool a bit.

Add sugar, and beat in the eggs. Add flour, and stir to combine.

Pour the batter into the cake pan. Even the surface with a spoon.

Sprinkle the fleur de sel or gourmet sel on top.

Bake in 180°C oven for 25-28 minutes. The cake should remain moist in the middle. Let cool. Once cooled completely, cover with cling wrap and store in the fridge for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

Prepare the orange sauce. With a sharp knife, cut off the peels of three oranges. Then cut each orange slice into skinless fillet.

Squeeze the juice of the three remaining oranges and transfer to a small pot. Add sugar and the star anise. Bring to a boil and let bubble, uncovered, until reduced to half. Let cool completely.

Mix the orange fillets into the cooled sauce, and store in the fridge.

Take the chocolate cake out of the fridge and let sit in room temperature for 1/2-1 hour before serving. Serve the cake with the orange sauce.