Julia Child’s Queen of Sheba (reine de saba)

Prepping work

1. Prep the Butter (½ Cup or 113 g) : let soften at room temperature

2. Butter and flour your pan mold

3. Keep in the freezer

4. Separate the Eggs (3) and place the blancs in a mixing bowl, to bring them to room temperature

5. For the Dark Chocolate ( 6 oz or 160 g), I recommend a quality chocolate, with 70% grade minimum. If you can, take a professional grade brand like Valrhona or Cacao Barry.

6.  If you live in the Los Angeles area, you may find professional grade chocolate, like Valrhona at Surfas (west side), or Nicole Market (South Pasadena)

Nicole's market
921 Meridian Avenue
South Pasadena, CA 91030
USA

Jane's Cake & Chocolate Supply
645 Foothill Blvd
La Cañada Flintridge, CA 91011
USA

7.  Melt the Dark Chocolate ( 6 oz or 160 g) with the Coffee (2 Tablespoons or 30 g) in a double-boiler and let the chocolate melt

Scanpan SaucepanLarge Mixing Bowls, Stainless Steel

8. Stir until the chocolate is fully melted

9. Set aside, to let cool slighty

10.  Make sure that the water from the doubleboiler does not fall into the chocolate !

11. For the next steps, you may mix everything "manually" with a spatula, or with the stand mixer (like a Kitchen Aid appliance), using the 'paddle', or with a electric beater

KitchenAid 7-Quart Stand MixerHand Mixer

12. In a bowl, cream the Sugar (½ Cup or 100 g) and the Butter (½ Cup or 113 g) (softened)

13. In a bowl, beat in the Egg Yolks

14. Add in the Almond Flour (½ Cup or 38 g) and the Almond Extract (¼ teaspoon) and mix

15. With a rubber spatula, blend in the melted Dark Chocolate

16. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks are formed

17. When the whites start frothing, add in the Sugar (2 teaspoons or 12 g) and continue beating the whites

18. Mix in 1/3 of the beaten egg whites to lighten the mixture

DeBuyer WhiskKitchenAid Whisk

19. The, delicately fold in the second 1/3 of the beaten whites

20. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the batter whithout whisking

21. Sift the Flour (½ Cup or 64 g) and the Baking Powder (1 teaspoon or 6 g)

22. Gently fold

Sifter for BakingFlour Sifter

23. Alternate by adding 1/3 of the beaten egg whites

24. and gently fold in

25. The batter you get must be fluffy

26. Turn the batter into the greased cake pan, and spread the batter with an offset Icing Spatula

8 Inch Round Cake Pan SiliconeDeep 8-inch Pastry Ring, Heavy Gauge

Baking

27. Bake in preheated oven at 340 °F / 170 °C for 25 minutes

28.  Do not open the oven while the cake is baking!

29. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 2 minutes, then run a knife around the edge

30. Transfer to a cooling rack

Round Cooling RackNonstick Cooling Rack

The Chocolate Icing

31. In a double boiler, melt the Dark Chocolate ( 3 oz or 80 g) and the Coffee (2 tablespoons)

32. Once melted, remove from the double boiler, add in the Butter (⅓ Cup or 85 g), and stir until it is melted

33. The icing is too liquid. Using a cold bowl of iced water, beat the icing over the ice bath, until it thickens

Simple Icing (Method #1)

34. First method, just ice the cake with a offset Icing Spatula

35. Press Sliced Almonds onto the icing

Here's the result with icing "method #1" :

Stylish Icing (Method #2)

36. Another option is to use a silicon mat "embosser", which I call the method #2 (my favorite)

37. Spread the icing on the embosser silicone mat

38. Press the cake onto it

39.  Freeze

40. Once frozen, remove the silicon mat

41. Ice the sides of the cake, and press Sliced Almonds