Valentino cake - DB February 2009 Part deux

As promised, here's the one paired with the champagne sorbetto. I also managed to take some more pictures of the ones with the vanilla ice cream. Had fun playing with all the different ramekins. A good friend of mine gave me a champagne called "Asti" so I made the cork a feature in the photo. Apparently, "Asti" is a type of Italian sweet grape used to make wine and champagne.


My sorbetto turns out pretty white, not the same as the picture in the recipe book. Perhaps it's the type of champagne that I used or I may have whisked it too much. Anyways, it still tasted great, and a perfect pairing for the Valentino cake. Nothing spells Valentine better than champagne, chocolate and strawberries.

P.S: One thing I forgot to mention, I used Lindt Couverture 65% bittersweet chocolate for my Valentino Cake.
Champagne Sorbetto (I got the recipe from an ice cream book by Octopus publishing, it didn't really say who wrote it)

125g sugar
150ml water
150ml champagne
juice of 1/2 lemon

Put sugar and water in a heavy saucepan and cook until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and cool.
Stir champagne and lemon into the sugar syrup. Pour into a shallow container and let freeze. After a few hours, when mixture is starting to freeze in the edges, whisk or process until smooth to break the ice crystal. Put back to the freezer and repeat this step 2 or 3 more times until creamy, smooth and lighter in colour.