Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year! (Triple Chocolate Cake)

I spent New Year’s weekend with good friends in Scottsdale, AZ.  Of course, I was hoping to ride the motorcycle. I’m always looking for an excuse to ride Oak Creek Canyon or the Apache Trail, two of my favorite day trips from the Phoenix area.

But instead, I drove this…
Corolla
Yep.  My new-to-me wheels after this debacle.



…so I could bring this…
Have kitchen, will travel


…to make this!
Triple Chocolate Cake*:  chocolate genoise soaked in a Frangelico syrup, frosted with chocolate ganache, and decorated with free form chocolate praline sheets that shatter as soon as you cut the cake (or sooner, if you move the cake, even as carefully as you would move plutonium), leaving your creation resembling the Roman Coliseum.


Also on our community project menu:  Midwestern Relish Tray, Dungeness Crab with assorted dipping sauces, Cream of Mushroom Soup, Roast Beast with Potatoes, Spaghetti Squash and Basil Gratin, Freshly Baked Bread, Green Salad with Toasted Hazelnuts and Gorgonzola, and freely flowing champagne.

*From Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible.  A tricky cake (a few misleading points in the recipe, in my opinion), with tricky decorations (knowing what I know now, I would handle the chocolate praline sheets a little differently), and undoubtedly the most delicious chocolate creation of all time, as far as I can tell.  If you get a yen to give it a try, leave a comment, check back, and I'll give you the details.  Well worth the indignity of taking the car.

5 comments:

Motorcycle Chains said...

Totally delicious.! Glad to read that you could bring although ingredients together for bake this recipe as well. It looks you had enjoyed delicious cake after great trip.

Ira Redinger said...

Next time you come here you must make one of those cakes.

Dad

Claudia from Idiot's Kitchen said...

Oh man...one of the few cookbooks I don't own. Off to my amazon wish list, I go. Looks fabulous.

Paula said...

Thank you! We did!

Paula said...

Shame on you for not owning this book! ;-)