20 September 2006

chocolatey goodness



My friend Pip got a big chocolatey-goodness kind of cake for his birthday. You can read the recipe here. This is classic birthday cake in my family--a recipe perfected by my grandma.

I covered it with ganache and then topped it with espresso bean bark. The bark is one of those wonderful things that sounds difficult and makes you seem all fancy-wancy gourmet but really is completely simple to do. Just melt bittersweet chocolate in the microwave, stir in some espresso beans, and pour it onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Spread it out fairly thin and pop it in the freezer. After it has hardened you can break it into pieces.



The key is using good chocolate. This time I used Scharffen Berger 62%. Yummy. I don't even like coffee but this. bark. is. yummy. You can also make larger shards of the bark and stick it to the sides of the cake all around to get a modern, architectural-looking kind of cake. Super easy. And everyone's all "oooooooo! aaaaaahhh!" And that's always fun.

3 comments:

hannah said...

i still say ooooooooo aaaaaaahhh. looks fantastic! lucky pip.

Jessica said...

I just discovered etsy through your site! Thank you sooooo much!

sulu-design said...

Oh...my...God... This looks so freakin' good. You have the luckiest friend!