I love to bake but I don't bake to much these days 'cause the old waist line can't handle it! But when my daughter called and said she wanted to bring a couple of her co-workers / friends home for the weekend to escape the big city (San Fransico) and celebrate one of their Birthdays ...I thought what the heck I'll bake the Birthday Girl a cake.
This is my favorite go-to cake recipe. It is a dense, almost flour less chocolate cake from Julia Child's cookbook "The Art of French cooking" circa 1961 published by A.Knopf. If you like to make cakes from scratch and you like dark chocolate this is the recipe for you! pp.677-678
"Queen of Sheba"
It's really not hard to make but you do have to be familiar with whipping and folding in egg whites.
The original recipe calls for a chocolate butter icing but I decided to make it extra rich and use chocolate ganache instead! I like Julia's comment at the beginning of the recipe!
Copied from "The Way to Cook" Julia Child, 1989, page 476, A. Knopf, 1989
I would not add as much liquid as recommended. 2 tsp.of vanila plus 3 tbs. of coffee was just a bit to much liquid for the mixture to set-up for truffles but it was OK for the icing.
Do I sound like Martha Stewart yet?! It always cracks me up when she talks like she just "whipped up this batch of Madelines" when there's a small army of people behind the scenes who prep everything for her! But have no fear this is what my kitchen counter looked like when I was done!
It was a big mess! But it does not actually take That long to clean up even without the scullery crew!
Here's the Birthday Girl! (I think she liked the cake)
Well however your tastes run in Baked Goods, I hope you have a Sweet Weekend!
Cheers, Claire W.
Beautiful cake Claire! It was very thoughtful of you to make your daughter's friend this cake! Thank you also for the recipe. I love to bake and when my children were growing up I baked all the time. Like you I do not bake as often now, mostly for Christmas gift giving. I really want to make this cake! Do you think it would freeze well?
ReplyDeleteI think this is a good candidate for freezing since it is so dense and I would suggest icing upon thawing. thanks for your comment and question! cheers, CW
DeleteLooks delicious! I've bookmarked it to try it sometime when cake is on order. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, and thanks for stopping by! cheers, CW
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous cake!
ReplyDeleteOh my that cake does sound yummy ... though with the weather being so warm again here I think I would better go for something fruity with a cream filling ...
ReplyDeleteFeel free to practice making the cake again next month... hint hint hint!!!
ReplyDelete