Pow! This recipe turned out to be a home run hit out of the park! As you may have gathered from previous Galley posts, my tiny Force 10 Marine propane-fueled oven is my baking nemesis: uneven heat (yes I turn the recipes half way through cooking time), a tendency to take FOREVER to pre-heat, and most recipes require longer cooking times. Even with careful monitoring the sides of my boat-baked cakes tend to dry out while the middle is barely done. I was almost ready to resign myself to baking cookies for the rest of the cruise. Noooooo!
These fabulous Warm Chocolate Fudge Cakes (recipe found in the America’s Test Kitchen publication, Baking for Two) were the answer to my boat-cake baking prayers. I doubled the recipe, then divided it into four individual ramekins for a quick 15-minute bake. Best of all, since the middle is warm fudge it doesn’t matter that the sides of the cake are done first!
Given the quick bake time this was the perfect–after dinner splurge dessert. I had all the dry ingredients measured out before I started dinner, so it was just a quick melt of the chocolate on the stove top in a double boiler after dinner (the recipe calls for melting in a microwave which we don’t have on board), followed by an even quicker mix of all the remaining ingredients before the batter was divided into ramekins and popped in the oven.
This recipe calls only for the usual galley baking supplies–nothing special. I used chocolate chips in the recipe. We keep a large Costco-size bag of semi-sweet chips on board for general baking and chocolate emergencies. Admittedly, we had some lovely Belgian chocolate truffles left over from Christmas that made the perfect fudgy-center of these rich, gooey cakes.
Because this cake is so chocolatey-rich, next time I may make some whipped cream to go with it from one of my handy-dandy little boxes of Trader Joe’s shelf-stable whipping cream. (I keep a stack of these little boxes in the port settee pantry–along side the emergency chocolate chips.)
I tried this recipe while at anchor with my sister and her husband on a recent island cruise in the Espiritu Santo Archipelago. (Family makes the best guinea pigs for baked goods.) The voting was unanimous. This recipe is a baking-in-the-boat winner! Here’s a link to the recipe that I found online:
Click to access ChocolateFudgeCakes_RicePilaf.pdf
P. S. On a recent batch I sadly over cooked it. This resulted in chocolate cake but without the gooey yummy center. My advise? As soon as a fork poked into the edge shows cake—it’s done! (The Center will take care of itself.)
Sailing Estelle 