Single's Appreciation Day

Christmas was a bit of a let-down for me this year. I spent it with a few friends and ate a lovely meal, but it wasn't the completely enthralling, October-November-December-consuming holiday of my childhoods. Same for Halloween (I used to start planning my costumes in June). Which means that what I'm about to tell you about may be, in fact, my favorite holiday.
I went to college in Maine for a year, at Bowdoin College, to be precise. While there, my friend Doris imparted to me her own (very wise) riff on February 14: Single's Awareness Day. Together, we began the ritual of eating lots of chocolate, watching Boondock Saints, and appreciating being single and having such good friends.
Fast-forward another year: I'd transferred back West, and I'd begun introducing the holiday at my new school. I'd changed the name to "Single's Appreciation Day", but of course I'd kept the chocolate and the Boondock Saints. Emily and I had a small celebration with our friend Eira and her roommate.
And now we're in 2008. My beloved holiday is taking on a life of its own; one that involves pre-planning, and email invitations, and baking the night before. Brenna, Zoë, Emily and I are hosting a viewing of the movie at The Miracle (the house where Em and I live), and expecting many a Singles-loving person to show up.
The Rules, as I sent them out: "ASD is a day for glorying in the single life. There will be no bitching about being single. There will be no discussing of significant others. Should anyone have the gall to show up with an S.O. in anything but faking a "This is my distant cousin" sort of way, they will be immediately subjected to doubtful looks and criticism ("Are you sure about that choice?", "When ARE you going to be single again, anyways? You can't put it off forever, you know..."). Enjoy watching two attractive men with accents kill people and eat some chocolate and be with the people you love (your friends)."
I will be doing my part by baking one of my favorite means of chocolate consumption: Gâteau au chocolat fondant.



Gâteau au chocolat fondant
adapted from my recently acquired, and dearly beloved copy of Je veux du chocolat ! (ok, so, I'm full of lies. I actually have the English version. It was $20 cheaper. But really, the French title just sounds SO much better than I Want Chocolate! which, let's be honest, sounds like a bratty five-year-old more than anything else). I love this cake. I LOVE this cake. I made it for this year's Christmas dinner; and Orangette over here used something like it for her wedding cake, which is about the most delightful thing I can think of. Maybe I'm just a bit too fond of fantastic yet slightly homely products in high-falootin settings (we did go out to pizza for my Senior Prom dinner), but if I were going to get married in the next decade or so (well, I suppose we never know...) I'm pretty sure that that's one idea (of many) I would be stealing.

7 oz best-quality dark chocolate
14 Tablespoons butter
1.25 c. granulated sugar
5 eggs
1 Tablespoon flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Use 8 inch round pan (or cupcake pans, if you want to, say, hand out individual small cakes)

Melt chocolate and butter together (in microwave or in double-boiler). Let cool slightly (I grease and cocoa* the pan at this point). Add sugar, blend until the sugar is somewhat dissolved. Add eggs one at a time, incorporating each completely before going on to the next. Add the flour. Batter should be delightfully blob-ish (mine always sticks together in the coolest, most gelatinous, horror-movie kind of way).

Deposit batter in to pan, bake for around 22 minutes. The middle will still be somewhat jiggly, as this is a soft, fondant cake.



*cocoa-ing in place of flouring, since it's a dark cake, and flour would look a little out of place

Photo by the generous and ever-lovely Emily F. Samstag.