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Death By Chocolate

I tested out a new cake recipe this week. I wanted to accomplish two things; come up with my own signature cake recipe, and do some work with ganache so that I could find out more about the timing and texture of the chocolate as I went.

The cake I came up with was *so* incredibly moist and rich, and I couldn’t be happier with it! It is literally so dark, it is almost black. I was expecting to have to tweak my ingredients here or there to get the result I was looking for, but for once, I actually got it right on the first try. Woo hoo!

I called this post “Death By Chocolate” because this cake is a chocolate lover’s dream! Even my 17-year old son, who is *not* a chocolate fan, said that he really liked it. He said the ganache icing got to be a little too much for him, but he did eat it all, and that is saying something for him; he is more of a vanilla kind of guy. He doesn’t even care for cake much, so that gave me an added boost.

I tried to take some photos as I went along, so you could see some of the ingredients I used. Obviously, I can’t give out all of the ingredients or the recipe – this will be my “signature” cake, after all! :) – but I did want to share the journey with you.

As always, you can click on each of the photos to enlarge them for better detail. :)

First I made some homemade Dulce De Leche. Rich, creamy, and oh-so-yummy!	Next came the chocolate ganache. I love the dark, glossy look of this.
Then, I pan-roasted some almonds, using certain spices to punch up the flavor.	I applied a thin coat of the ganache on the first layer to make the base.
I piped a dam using whipped ganache, and added a layer of dulce de leche and toasted almonds.	Next, I added on my second layer, and smoothed the sides with my spatula.
I finished it off by coating it in a layer of the chocolate ganache. (each 1/4 of cake equals 3 servings)	A little slice of chocolate heaven! The filling tasted a lot like a Snickers bar, only better. Mmmm.

Since this was just a trial run of the cake, I didn’t bother with any fancy smoothing, piping or decorating. For this trial I simply wanted to 1) See if we liked the recipe, and 2) Find out at what stage the ganache can be used to do different types of decorating. Now that I know, my next chocolate creation will look much prettier. LOL!

The only thing I have left to do with this cake now is to come up with a good name for it. I’m thinking something along the lines of “Chocolate Tuscan Delight”. Why? The secret is in the cake. ;)

If you have any Italian-themed names, please feel free to leave a comment and give me your thoughts. Hmmmm. I feel a contest coming on.

Happy Baking,

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Race Car Novelty Cake

Well, I finally completed my first novelty cake! Actually, it was my first time using fondant as well. :)

The car came out pretty good, I think, but I did have some issues trying to roll out the fondant to cover the sheet cake portion of the cake. I ended up using buttercream (which turned into a huge mess because it wouldn’t crust!) to frost the the sheet cake, and I am not real happy with the results. All in all though, for a first try, I don’t think it turned out too bad!

I did learn a few things though:

Using real butter for the buttercream does not give a good result if you want it to crust so you can smooth it. It is better used for the filling.
Use only high quality ingredients (not store brand) to get better results.
Marshmallow fondant, when flavored with almond oil and orange extract, tastes like candy corn!
My non-stick rolling pin was *not* non-stick!
I need to remember to freeze my cakes before carving.
Preparing the fondant a day in advance is *so* helpful!
Coloring fondant while in the “cooking” stage is much easier than trying to knead it in afterwards.
Black fondant sucks to work with!
I need to try out some different crusting buttercream recipes before my next cake.
Toba Garret’s Moist Yellow Cake recipe is *fabulous*!!
Standing for hours in the kitchen kills my back; I need to invest in some squishy shoes. LOL
It is possible to pull your butt muscle when bending over to pick something up. Long story, but needless to say, I am hobbling right now. *grins*

Now, onto the photos. Click them to enlarge!

The car by itself, before adding luster dust and placing it on the sheet cake.

The car after applying luster dust, and piping grass around it on the sheet cake.

Another view of the car. You can kind of see the pearl luster dust sheen a bit better here.

My grandbaby Gavin, sitting with his car cake and his new Iron Man toy. :)

For my next project, I am going to be working on testing buttercream recipes, and learning how to cover round cakes with fondant. I need to get these two basics down as quickly as I can, so that when I get ready to make my daughter’s baby shower cake, it will go much more quickly. :)

Hope you enjoyed the photos, and I will be chatting with you again soon!

Happy Caking!