Jun 13, 2008

CHOCOLATE - RASPBERRY CAKE

I am feeling that my sugar high is coming to an end… So here is what might be the last of my sugar coated postings for a while… well, then again, you never know !
Although the weather has really not been that great recently, the fruits for this season of the year are terrific. All my favourite fruits are stacked on the shelves these days looking ripe and irresistibly seductive! The other day I bought some gorgeous raspberries, enjoyed some on their own and used the rest for a chocolate-raspberry cake with plenty of chocolate ganache and raspberry liqueur. I’m a genuine chocoholic, and I do love all sorts of cakes, but chocolate cakes are by far my favourite.

Above: beautiful raspberries. Below: coating the cake with the chocolate-raspberry ganache

Anyway, I’m going to cut this post short- but I do have to say that I’ve always enjoyed the fabrications of cakes: the layers, textures, colours, flavours… I love the process of dressing them and matching up their edible accessories. It’s almost like dressing up a doll… even though for the latter I’ve gone way past the age of doing that!

Recipe for my Chocolate-Raspberry cake:

>Chocolate Genoise ingredients:
4 eggs
125 gr sugar
125 gr flour
60 gr butter, melted
30 gr cocoa
Raspberry liqueur

Prepare a bain-marie. Place the sugar & eggs in the upper pot of the bain-marie and whisk for about 10 minutes until ribbons form and fall off the whisk beaters. Then add half of the flour and cocoa and quickly fold. Repeat with the remaining half of the flour and cocoa. Finally gently add in the butter. Transfer batter to a buttered cake mould, and bake in oven for 30 mins (checking with a sharp knife later if it needs more baking time). Remove from oven, let cool, unmould and slice horizontally in half. Brush each slice with raspberry liqueur.

>Chocolate – Raspberry ganache ingredients (sorry no measurements incl, I eyeballed the ingredients for this one) :

Raspberries, crushed
Liquid cream
Dark chocolate

Heat the liquid cream and crushed raspberries together- but do not let it boil. Then lower heat and add in the dark chocolate. The proportions are usually the cream being half the amount of the chocolate used. Allow all the chocolate to melt until ganache becomes smooth. Set aside, let cool and then with a spatula spread a layer in between the chocolate genoise and use the rest of the ganache to coat the cake at the end. Finish off by decorating cake with raspberries (optional).

20 comments:

Peter G | Souvlaki For The Soul said...

Marianna, the cake looks gorgeous! Just wonderful with those plump, red raspberries.

Patricia Scarpin said...

Raspberries and chocolate are one of the most wonderful combos. What a beautiful cake, Marianna!

Peter M said...

MArianna, if you need ANY assistance with eating this cake, I'm there in "six heures".

Your imagination is incroyable!

Mike of Mike's Table said...

That looks amazing and beautifully done inside and out! Don't stop with the sweets--keep 'em coming!

Anonymous said...

from a chocoholic to another, i can totally sympathize. the best cakes are always chocolate :)

test it comm said...

That cake looks amazing! Chocolate and raspberries are a great combo!

Anonymous said...

Delicious and luscious! I hope you're not over your sugar high yet :)

Anonymous said...

hi marianna ilove your blog
This looks great chocolate is my favorite..

Nina Timm said...

This is wicked, sister!!!! We pay a lot for raspberries at the moment - out of season, but come summer, I will try this....

Anonymous said...

Marianna, what a stunning cake! I wish I was there to lick the bowl after you made the icing. Yummy!

Anonymous said...

cake and booze, A+.

those are gigundo raspberries!

Brilynn said...

Gorgeous cake!

Avory said...

Mm, this looks amazing! Here via foodgawker - one question, do you have a guess with the raspberries to cream proportion? One to one?

Mónica Pinto said...

Marianna, what a lovely cake. I´m a chocoholic, and just to look at this cake without being able to eat it is pure torture.

Daziano said...

Berries and chocolate, a match made in heaven!

katecontinued said...

What a gorgeous blog. I would like to use an image from your post on labneh. Your directions are to request permission in the comment thread and you will email me. Correct?

I look forward to your response. katecontinued@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

What a delicious combination! I must try...

b@be said...

I'm just trying to understand what you like more... take photos ou cooking!!!

Very very good your blog!

Andre LeFort said...

Just thought i'd leave a comment regarding your ingredient list for the cake.

Seems you were light on the egg mixture instructions. I found reference online that provided more detail:

"In a large heatproof bowl whisk together the eggs and sugar. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisking constantly, heat the eggs and sugar until lukewarm to the touch (this will take approximately 5 minutes depending on the temperature of the eggs and the simmering water). Remove from heat and transfer the egg mixture to the bowl of your electric mixer. Beat on high speed until the egg mixture has cooled, tripled in volume, and looks like softly whipped cream. This will take approximately 5 minutes and the batter is beaten sufficiently when the batter falls back into the bowl in a ribbon-like pattern."

sourced from http://www.joyofbaking.com/ChocolateGenoise.html

Anonymous said...

welcome back these pics are amazing!