POSITIVE CONTROL NUMBER 3 - Flourless cake so yes, it's gluten free!

For our third demo cake we roped a student in to come up with something even though student cake month hadn't started. The reason is simple, he was a little braggadocious (isn't that a great word)  about his culinary abilities so we called him on it. And no, this does not get him out of having to take part in student cake month. We just figured he would set a good example.

And he did! He came with something that you will sometimes hear described with at touch of effeteness in restaurants by self-important waitresses. "A flourless chocolate cake served with a mixed berry coulis and chantilly!"  Like a cake is supposedly better because it is flourless. What that really means is there is a lot more fat in it to keep it solidified and BTW we're not concerned about gluten.  In addition to making the cake he also prepared the coulis from fresh berries and hand whipped the cream on the spot. It's best fresh after all!

Ed's back trying for another five pieces to go galloping down his gullet!

Our student chef and his creation!

This cake was dense, chocolatey and rich. The correct presentation is shown below with a swirl of coulis to one side and the dollop of whipped cream aka chantilly on the other. The two complemented the chocolate cake well and our student "volunteer" scored a hit. Perhaps hoping to reprise his success from the previous day Ed was right up there for the first piece.  The amount he consumed today remains undetermined.

The presentation!

We were interested in learning how our chef had acquired his skills and found out that he had worked in several restaurants.  Last summer the restaurant was Erbaluce in the Bay Village section of Boston.  As a person of Italian heritage he complimented the restaurant by saying it had the most authentic Italian cuisine this side of Italy and his home kitchen.  It turns out one of us used to live two doors down from this restaurant and remembers when it was known as Mario's - a neighborhood Italian restaurant with passable red sauces. My how things have changed.

http://www.erbaluce-boston.com/

It was then pointed out that the parking lot right behind the restaurant had a significant historic meaning. It was the site of the Melody Lounge of the former Cocoanut Grove Nightclub and it was in this lounge part of the club where the famous fire started that ultimately took close to 500 lives.  It's a very interesting story when you realize that the fire lasted all of seven minutes and did not destroy the property. Those still remaining at cake time had never heard of the event. For more info get a copy of the book or check here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoanut_Grove_fire