Nigella's to Blame - FB2B, part 62

While lounging about on the sofa, catching up on my Food Network watching and recovering from the night spent hanging out with friends at drinks at the Met, I tuned into Nigella Lawson's "Nigella Feasts." This British import is once again lighting up our television screens with her food and philosophy of indulging one's sense of taste.

That day, she was making her "Chocohotopots." Yum, my friend who was staying with me and I thought, but the sofa had us firmly fixed in place, so we didn't do anything about the temptation. Gooey, chocolately things always look appealing to me.


Later that day, I was checking out "Is My Blog Burning," which is a site that brings together food bloggers by hosting theme events where people send in their posts relating to a particular topic. This month, "Sugar High Friday" (the sweet-tooth exchange) requested that bloggers try to make something that they always order when eating out, but have never made.

Nigella's dish was seared on my brain. Ah, ha! This blog event is the perfect way for me to justify trying a recipe for my favorite restaurant dessert - molten chocolate cakes or chocolate lava cakes or any version thereof. I located this recipe on line at Joy of Baking. Here is my submission for the June SHF event:


My chocolate of choice was Scharffen-Berger's bittersweet. The inside of the cake was more like a spongy, soufflé texture (as the recipe promised), with the outside like a dense brownie. In order to balance out the richness of the chocolate cake, I decided to make a mint leaf-infused crème anglais (no doubt inspired by the cioccolato e fiordilatte con menta gelato combo I'd had at Grom earlier that day). At Avra, the Greek restaurant I mentioned a few weeks ago, they serve this dessert with fig ice cream. It is heavenly.

Here's another look at this gorgeous gooeyness.


Buon appetito!