TWD - Carrement Chocolat, The Fancy Cake

 

On November 11, 2014, I published my first Tuesday with Dorie - Baking Chez Moi post. The recipe was Palets de Dames, Lille Style, being fancy little frosted cookies. Now, almost 6 years to the day later, I am publishing my last Tuesday with Dorie - Baking Chez Moi post.  Allow me to indulge in this achievement, because 6 years is a long time and a lot has happened over that period.

Today’s final recipe is a very fancy French style chocolate cake - Carrement Chocolat. It comprises a thin chocolate cake, flavoured with cocoa, sliced in half and filled with chocolate creme patisserie, glazed with shiny chocolate ganache and topped with abstract salted chocolate shapes:

My cake is not as grand as it might have been because it is only a half recipe. In this strange and sometimes frightening year, I have been working from home for 8 months, so I cannot share a full version of this cake with my colleagues, as I once would have. I also lost my cake loving downstairs neighbour a couple of months back - he would have told me this cake was “beautiful”, so I feel very sorry that he is not here to share this delightful treat.

I did give a slice to a lady in the same complex who lives in another tower, and today, I am going to Pilates for the first time in 5 months, so I will share a few slices with my instructor and classmates.  This is a celebration cake, made to be shared, so I am grateful to finally be allowed out to share it with a wider group of people.

My favourite part of this cake was the addictive salted chocolate shapes on top, followed closely by the silky chocolate creme patisserie. This cake was definitely “beautiful”, as John would have said.

Here I am, in full celebration mode, at the end of my third full Dorie Greenspan cookbook:

It has been a tradition that Doristas, as Trevor dubbed us, celebrate the end of each book in some way, so this odd sideways-looking selfie (due to the device camera positioning) with my cake and my book, all dressed up with nowhere to go, is my way of marking this auspicious occasion.

Another tradition is to rate your least and most favourite recipes.  My least favourite was the Cats Tongues, which were an abject failure for me, while my all-time favourite is the delightful canneles, unique and fabulous in their own right.

To my fellow Baking Chez Moi Doristas - congratulations, it’s been quite a ride that we’ve been on together.

And as for Baking Chez Moi - this is finis. Au revoir!