The science behind tempering chocolate

When it comes to birthday cakes, I am used to creating sweet, icing-loaded creations in the shape of Disney characters. These requests leave me unfazed, but my father, who is a dark chocolate aficionado, asked me to bake the cake for a big birthday lunch, which will require a different level of sophistication.

I have a wicked recipe for a flourless dark chocolate cake. But without flour, a cake has little structure, so this won’t do for a celebration cake that needs enough layers to look grand and feed a crowd. Instead, I am going to make a standard chocolate…