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Tuesday, April 08, 2008

because I couldn't sleep without sharing the chocolate joy

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Again, I should REALLY be in bed. My preggo butt will be T-I-R-E-D tomorrow.

Especially considering I'm in a new job and should really be trying my utmost to impress all and sundry.

But I can't sleep without sharing this cake.

So here it is....from the Best of the Best of Bridge, this is what I craved. I was all set to make a much healthier dessert (a very good one!) from Self magazine. It's a lovely apple caramel strudel in phyllo, done with a creamy caramel sauce. As long as you eschew the cooking spray for butter, it's a GREAT dessert.

But then I saw this one. And it was like the helpless moth, fluttering blindly, yet oh so lovingly, toward the flame.

Must. Have. Chocolate.

This chocolate raspberry torte is really more of a cake than a torte...but it's a delicious cake. Relatively easy to make (as much as a four layer cake can be easy) and very easy to work with. Texture of the cake itself is nice and light and soft, and the chocolate sour cream ganache icing is WONDERFUL to work with. Can't go wrong with this. You can make the cake the day before, but as the filling and icing need to be refrigerated, you should probably either make sure you have lots of fridge space or do the assembly the day of.

Chocolate Raspberry Torte - from Best of Bridge
DSC_5393

Cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted 500 mL (I used cake flour)
2 tsp. baking soda 10 mL
1/2 tsp. salt 2 mL
1/2 tsp. baking powder 2 mL
3 squares (1 oz. / 30 g size) unsweetened chocolate 75 g
1/2 cup butter 125 mL
2 cups light brown sugar,packed 500 mL (I only had dark brown and was out of vanilla, so I used 1.5 cups dark brown sugar and 1/2 c. vanilla bean sugar)
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup sour cream 175 mL
1/2 cup strong coffee 125 mL (used decaf)
1/2 cup coffee flavoured liqueur 125 mL (but, awful preggo that I am, I still used the booze!)

Filling:
1 cup whipping cream 250 mL
2 Tbsp. icing sugar 30 mL
1-12 oz. jar raspberry or strawberry jam 340 mL (thankfully had most of a jar of seedless raspberry jam in the fridge - woot!)

Chocolate Sour Cream Icing:
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips 375 mL (I splurged and bought slightly more expensive chocolate chips - it's worth making sure your chocolate chips are tasty enough to actually eat. I can attest to their tastiness, seeing as during the writing of this post, I finished off the bag....)
3/4 cup sour cream 175 mL
dash of salt
fresh raspberries or strawberries
***I used 2 cups of chocolate chips and about 1 1/4 cups of sour cream. I HATE not having enough icing. 2 cups of chocolate chips was actually too much....


1. Preheat oven to 350F. (180 degrees C).

2. Grease and flour two 9 inch (1.5 L) layer cake pans.

3. Sift dry ingredients. (Seriously, does anyone do that? I don't...)

4. Melt chocolate and let cool.

5. In a large bowl beat butter, brown sugar, and eggs at a high speed until mixture is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
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6. Beat in melted chocolate and vanilla.
DSC_5371

7. At low speed, beat in flour mixture (in fourths), alternating with sour cream (in thirds). Add coffee and liqueur, blending until smooth.

8. Pour batter into pans and bake 30 to 35 minutes or until surface springs back.
DSC_5374

9. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and cool on wire racks.
DSC_5379


Filling:
1. Beat cream with icing sugar until stiff. Refrigerate.

2. Slice cake layers in half horizontally to make four layers. (Hint: Cake layers slice more easily if frozen first, though I actually found they sliced really well after having sat overnight! Trust me, if this knife-incompetent fool can do it, you can too!)

3. Place one layer, cut side up, on cake plate.

4. Spread with 1/2 cup (125 mL) raspberry jam and 1/2 cup (125 mL) whipped cream mixture.
DSC_5391

5. Repeat with remaining layers, ending with top layer, cut side down.
DSC_5392

Icing:
1. Melt chocolate chips in top of double boiler (I used the microwave. I don't have a double boiler and was clean out of pots.)

2. Add sour cream and salt and beat until icing is creamy and smooth. Ice top and sides of cake before it sets. Liberally indulge in excess icing.

To decorate cake....yeah, I had this vision of having a beautifully frosted cake, replete with raspberries, drizzly white chocolate and lucious curls of chocolate.

I couldn't find any raspberries so I had to sub strawberries.

My "drizzly" white chocolate looked like....um, actually, I'm not going to repeat what it looked like. It was EXTREMELY unattractive, obscene and gross looking. Blobs of white goopy stuff strewn across the cake. *ew* I waited until it cooled and picked it off (yes, it was that bad......).

I was using cheap chocolate to make curls and it would only flake. No curl whatsoever.

DSC_5394

But hey, at least the icing was good! The final product looked pretty nice though, I will say, even if it wasn't *quite* what I planned out. And I can't say enough about the value of an icing comb - it dresses up the look of your cake....and like pizza AND chocolate, even when it's bad....it still looks pretty good! :)

DSC_5403

Thanks for reading!

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

In addition chocolate causes certain endocrine glands to secrete hormones that affect your
feelings and behavior by making you happy. Therefore, it counteracts depression, in turn reducing the stress of depression. Your stress-free life helps you maintain a youthful disposition, both physically and mentally. So, eat lots of chocolate.


"I love chocolate. Have you ever seen a chocolate
fountain? It is wonderful! Check this out.."

http://www.sarahs-sweet-fountains.co.uk

grace said...

first of all, i will not be providing a wealth of chocolate information like the previous comment-maker.
that being said, i will be thanking you for sharing this amazing recipe. the pictures alone should hold me over for awhile. :)

Unknown said...

Chocolate fountain spammers. That takes me back to wedding planning days. ;)

Man, that cake. I would make it except it's just the husband and I here, and we'd gain so much weight! Hmm, maybe when we finally have his dad and stepmom over for dinner....

Deborah said...

You sure do treat your guest well!

Love the preggo pic!

Unknown said...

SOOO glad you're finally back! That cake looks delish...and you have got to be the cutest preggo ever! Congrats to you.

Judy@nofearentertaining said...

Yummm. Your right about bad chocolate not even being sooo bad! Love the belly pic!

Jenny said...

Well about time on the picture!
So now that you are feeling better, up for trying to meet up before life turns into endless rounds of nursing, changing diapers and no sleep?

That cake, btw, looks great, and just what I could use a piece of right now!

RecipeGirl said...

That cake is so prettily decorated- looks yummy!

Anonymous said...

You are SO cute!!

BubblyBunny said...

Mmmm...that cake looks soooo yummy!! I don't know how you find the time/energy to cook all this stuff. When I crave cake, I just go to a restaurant and order a slice. :P I can't justify buying/eating the whole cake by myself, no matter how much the baby tells me I "need cake". Heehee...besides, if I eat out, it's expensive and I only get to do it once in a while, so it's a good way to control my cake-intake. :P

By the way, love the butter chicken recipe!! I'll have to give that a try sometime!! :D

Unknown said...

yes that looks wonderful! you also look very cute preggo!

Jenny said...

Okay...so I'm looking at this cake and I'm drooling on my keyboard as I type.

God help me the day I get preggers because I think I would murder someone for a decent piece of chocolate as is right now - LOL

Your blog is giving me evil/ tempting thoughts. I hear a certain vending machine calling my name...gah!

Unknown said...

the cake looks amazing! and you look so cute! Congrats!

Anna said...

I'm sooo going to try this out at the weekend.

And my little sis is 15 weeks pregnant! Yay!

Neen said...

Your prggo pic is sooo beautiful! Yay you! Take lots of photos now, because you'll look entirely different in a week, in a month...

"Must. Have. Chocolate."

Was that you or me responding to this recipe? Magnetism!

Jaime said...

The cake looks awesome and I love the belly pic! You look great! When are you due? I'm due June 25.

Also, I love reading your blog so
I have given you an award. Check it out: http://myburnttoast.blogspot.com/2008/04/blogging-with-purpose.html

Jaime said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Oh look at you and your belly, so cute!!!!!!
Love the posts, and love the photo! Hope to see more, and can't wait to see baby photos!!!!

Unknown said...

Wow! This is the ultimate uplifting comfort food. I love your pictures too, the detail on the cake is great, looks like it took a good amount of time, but definitely not impossible. I'm totally jealous of your Kitchen Aid Mixer by the way!

-Sylvia
Arizona Art Gallery

agatex said...

That is an absolutely fantastic cake! Now I know what am I going to bake as my birthday cake, thank you for posting it :)

Mary @Delightful Bitefuls said...

Ooooo wow! This looks delicious!

New to your blog; happy I found you!

Mary xo
Delightful Bitefuls

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