Can anyone verify my math? I'm making CathyZ's flourless chocolate cake.

M

marilynfl

Moderator
She recommends Callebaut 54% (also my favorite) but I only have Callebaut 70% and Baker's 32% Milk chocolate bars. From Alice Medrich, I know there is more fat and less sugar in the higher percentages, so making substitutions involve not only calculating the cacao needed, but adjusting the fat and sugar amount where needed.

I need a total of 20 oz of chocolate. At 54%, that would be 10.8 oz of cacao.

I started with 10 oz of 70% = 7 oz of cacao. Subtract that from the 10.8 and I still need 3.8 oz of cacao from the milk chocolate. My math says 3.8/.32 = 11.875 oz of milk.

THAT seems like a whole lot of additional sugar and not enough fat from the chcoolate (although there IS a pound of butter in this cake already...and egg yolks).

So I tried 13 oz of 70% = 9.1 oz cacao

That leaves 1.5 oz needed from the milk chocolate

1.5/.32 = 5.3 oz of milk

I think I'm going with this version, but if anyone can check and sees a screaming error, please let me know ASAP. I'll be making the cake tomorrow for Saturday's party.

Thank you.

 
That hurts my brain.

I see where you are going, kinda, but if it’s recommended To have 20 oz of 54% It looks like you are converting to 100%, but maybe not because my brain decided it couldn’t read that much math right now.

 
I see where you are going with your math, and it seems correct to me. If I may say, though...

since the original recipe says "good quality semi sweet chocolate" and that semi-sweet is typically around 60%, if it were me, I would go with the same *weight* amount of chocolate, perhaps 14 oz of the 70% and 6 oz of the 32% milk.

I think you have some leeway in there with precision with the cacao amounts, and that will get you in the neighborhood of where you want to be.

 
I honestly don't think it makes any difference. Recipes are much the same for

milk chocolate or dark chocolate. The cake is so decadent that it just "speaks for itself"!! LOL

 
Oh, oh...I think I can answer this. It's 20 oz of grated chocolate, so

that would mean 54% of that is cacao (10.8 oz) and the other 46% would be sugar and fat.

Each of the chocolates I mention will bring along their own cacao, fat and sugar, but in widely different amounts (milk has lots more sugar and milk products than fat, while the 70% will have more fat than sugar).

I'm trying to achieve the same cacao amount while staying fairly close to the original fat/sugar ratios.

 
For this cake, I do believe it makes a difference. I've made it before (using CathyZ's

recommendation because I could easily get 54% then) and the taste is sublime. If it were made, say, with all milk chocolate, it simply wouldn't have the same depth and mouth feel.

You should try making this recipe, Charley. It truly is a keeper.

 
But you're not making it with milk chocolate (I know that IS what I said). So I think

the difference would be very small.
I will when I have some "help" in eating it!! LOL

 
CanI throw a monkey wrench into this conversation? I tweaked the recipe

LOL- any of you that know me know I constantly change and tweak to make better (for me not necessarily for you). Quite a while ago I decided to try using Cadbury Royal Dark Chocolate (in the candy section not the baking section) and totally got hooked on the results. For the flourless chocolate cake I use a little over 7 bars of it. Cadbury still makes the most wonderful chocolate (who knew?) so I encourage you to try it next time you make this recipe. The results will give you a smooth but creamy fudge-like piece of nirvana.

I believe I went through at least 20 flourless recipes before I was able to score this one; it is a sensational recipe for sure. Wish I had made it up!

 
Thanks, G. This is the same flourless cake from Princeville Hotel, except she adds 2 tsp of vanilla.

But in reading her blog, the commentary sounds just like CathyZ's original posting...I mean, almost every direction she emphasizes mimics the directions CathyZ gave us in her post.

 
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