Death By Chocolate Cake & a torch (Part 1)

My boss's all time favorite cake, which I've heard him rave about for months, is Death by Chocolate. Recently I emailed the restaurant,  La Trellis, to see if they would FedEx us a cake. They said no.

Then, I thought about buying the La Trellis cookbook; but after googling I found several recipes online including this recipe from food.com http://goo.gl/NXAds and this blog post from ButterYum - http://goo.gl/yqsvi

At our training dinner this past Monday night my boss asked what, if anything, I'd be making for the group. You see, I've made something for every training group since I started 8 months ago (at first, just to use the massive amount of eggs sitting in my fridge but eventually it was to try new recipes).

The last group had Creme Brulee :)

During dinner our conversation turned to everyone's favorite recipes and the boss mentioned that cake..again. So, I did what any good cook would do - I googled it (yet again) and decided to try making this massive cake with an equally massive 6 pages of directions.

I could have simply made Cook's Illustrated's Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake ... for the 4th time this year, but, no I thought I'd be adventurous....

So following our dinner, I headed to the store to pick up heavy whipping cream and dark rum - I thought I had everything else I might need. When I finally got home around 8pm I realized I was short unsweetened chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate. So, off to the store again.

Then, I returned home and made the first two layers: coco meringue and chocolate mousse.


The coco meringue went surprisingly well and I even had the piping supplies to make it look neat. I used a round cake pan and not a cardboard cake round and LOVED when I realized I didn't have to cut out the traced circle. I also thought I'd be creative and pipe the left over meringue into ramekins. The recipe probably makes double (anyone have a 6- inch deep 9-inch spring-form pan?) but, I should have just made two 9-inch meringue circles -- the meringue in the ramekins crusted nicely but the inside was a gooey mess.

The chocolate mousse was going well until I decided not to rinse the mixer bowl between the whipping creme and egg white steps. (Note: milky eggs do not peak) So, I had to start over. And, then I noticed I was short some eggs...

Check back later for part 2 :)

A week in photos! With recipe links to Cook's Illustrated Magazine

So, this month has been a whirlwind - and I have sincerely slacked at posting. It is late, I'm tired, but I wanted to attempt to post SOMETHING this month of value ... so here it goes

Chocolate Mousse

This dish is light, yummy, and has a bit of texture I think is caused by the eggs. But, all around a nice balanced mousse that satisfies that desire for decadent chocolate and rich texture. The recipe link above will make three small Pyrex containers.

Stir-fry Beef with Asparagus & Red-Peppers

We made this for a last minute little dinner party. It fed six, and these were the left overs. We substituted the veggies. It was delicious, cost under $40, could have fed 8, AND took less than an hour to make.

Classic Pound Cake

A dear friend is getting married and as a bridesmaid I thought I'd pitch in and make something for her bridal shower. This is a photo of my cubed pound cake. I made two - and they turned out beautiful - with a nice crust on the top and all. (should have taken a photo) We used the cubes for dipping in a chocolate fountain, at least that was the plan - it turned into a crock pot when the fountain didn't work ;)

Creme Brulee for Two

Half done, the batter tasted AMAZING. I can't wait to top these tomorrow after a LONG week and enjoy them with an amazing friend (and my husband too) The ramekins are a recent purchase using a Crate & Barrel card from another good friend, thank you Ashley - I was able to get all sorts of sizes, jars, etc with your fantastic gift. (hopefully you read this shout out)


Night :)

Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake

I was craving a delicious Chocolate desert, and so I turned to my Cooks Illustrated books and found this tasty treat. https://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/4958-triple-chocolate-mousse-cake

Note: That is a Steak n' Shake plate. (not I did not steal it)