We had a bonus challenge this month for Chocolate with Francois -- there's really no way to get through the whole book in a timely fashion without throwing in an extra recipe here and there. The chosen recipe was Charlie's Afternoon Cake, an incredibly easy to make chocolate cake that will beat out most other chocolate cakes you've had in both flavor and texture.
The cake is made with 60% chocolate, so it has a deep chocolate flavor, but the addition of sugar keeps it from tasting too bittersweet. The other ingredients are all ones you probably have on hand: butter, flour, and eggs.
If you need to make a last-minute cake and you only have an hour to do so, this would definitely be the cake to make. It comes out fudgy and a little brownie-like. With some confectioners' sugar or whipped cream, it makes for an elegant dessert.
Just be very careful with moving or plating it. Because it's so soft and fudgy, it's a bit delicate.
You can find the recipe in Francois Payard's Chocolate Epiphany: Exceptional Cookies, Cakes, and Confections for Everyone and on Julie's blog. And you can see what other members of Chocolate with Francois thought by checking out their blogs, which are listed on the blogroll.
I apologize to those looking for my MS: Cupcakes Club post. I opted not to do this month's cupcake -- candied sweet potato -- because I didn't have enough guinea pigs and I didn't want to make them just to make them. I'll try to catch up on these another time. But head over to the MS: Cupcakes Club Web site to see how the other members did with this recipe!