Jo and Clarence's Baby Boy

Today is a very special day. Every year on March 5th, I think about Jo and Clarence Parker and wish I had gotten to know them better. We lost both of them the year we married, Clarence in February of 1996, and Jo in July of that same year.  Paul was the baby of the family, with brothers 8 and 11 years older.  Sometime during Jo's illness, Paul asked his mother if he had been a mistake, perhaps giving voice to a nagging insecurity in the back of his mind or more possibly, a shameless effort to bask in motherly love!  By that time, ALS had robbed Jo of her ability to speak clearly, so she often resorted to writing her responses.  Paul has a sheaf of papers tucked away giving record to Jo's side of many of their last conversations.  One special page in that collection documents Paul's mother's response to that probing question from her "baby" boy.  In shaky yet bold handwriting she answered, "No, you were a precious gift from God."

And so he is!  He is MY special one, a gift I celebrate each year on March 5th.  And since I love people by feeding them, my gift to him is a rich and decadent chocolate dessert. As I have shared before, Paul does my primary G2 work by scouting out new and interesting recipes. One of the best gifts I ever gave Paul (aside from food) is home delivery of the New York Times every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  If there is ever a glitch in the delivery service, Paul's enjoyment of his weekend morning is greatly diminished.  The happy by-product of this subscription for me is the many recipes Paul passes my way.  He emailed a link to me this week, and the timing just seemed a little too coincidental.  It is his birthday week, and he sends me a link to an Amanda Hesser article in the Times offering a reprise of a 1969 recipe for French Chocolate Cake.  It seemed the thing to bake on this birthday morning.  While his gift to himself is a few hours watching his favorite movie, Lawrence of Arabia, I have time to putter in the kitchen with chocolate and butter and eggs and such.

Happy birthday to my Paulie!  Fifty-seven never looked so good.

I hope you will follow the link and read Hesser's background information on this recipe.  You may want a copy of her new cookbook, The Essential New York Times Cook Book; Classic Recipes for a New Century, which contains the recipe in this blog and many other updated classics.  At the time of this writing, Hesser's 900 page encyclopedic work sells for under $25 and was voted one of Amazon's "Best Books" of 2010.  What a bargain!  Here's my adaptation:

Evelyn Sharpe's French Chocolate Cake
1 pound semisweet chocolate
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
4 eggs, separated
Sweetened whipped cream
Creme fraiche


1.  Heat oven to 425 degrees.  Line the base of an 8-inch springform pan with parchment paper. (My pan was 9 inches.  It made a slightly flatter cake.  I would recommend an 8-inch pan as the recipe suggests, but the cake didn't suffer from being a bit flatter.)

2.  Break the chocolate in pieces and place in a microwave proof bowl.  Microwave in 30 second increments until chocolate is melted, but has not completely lost its shape. In my microwave, that was less than 2 minutes.  (Can melt in a double boiler slowly over hot water--NOT boiling.)

3.  Stir the chocolate until smooth.  Stir in the butter, flour and sugar.   Beat the eggs slightly and whisk into the chocolate mixture gradually.

4.  Beat the egg whites until they hold a definite shape but are not dry and fold into the chocolate mixture.  Overbeating or underbeating will ruin the cake, warns Amanda Hessser.  The beaten egg whites should be folded smoothly, quickly and easily into the chocolate mixture.  Pour into the prepared pan.

5.  Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.  Turn off the heat.  Open the oven door, leaving it ajar, and allow the cake to cool in the oven. The cake is best served a little warmer than room temperature.  Serve with whipped cream.  Hesser recommends mixing a little creme fraiche into the whipped cream.  I followed her suggestion and am glad I did.  The slightly sour taste of the creme fraiche works nicely with the richness of the cake.  To slice the cake, run a long thin knife under hot water and then cut the cake into small slices.  Serves 10.