ABC: All American Chocolate Cake with Divinity Frosting and Milk Chocolate Paint

September 07, 2010 by Monica in ABC, Baking, Baking Club, Cake, Cookbooks, Desserts, Sweets

After having crashed and burned on the last chocolate offering on my other baking clubs, this recipe, from the ABC choice of the month had a very high expectations even before I read the whole recipe.

My reasoning behind it was that after having baked four recipes from Flo Braker book none have disappointed me. So we were 4 for 4. Can we make five?

My first tip to you is this. Bake the cake a day ahead, while is NOT a complicated cake to make, and nowhere in the instructions does it tell you to do this, I’m going to highly recommend you do. The high crumb level on this cake will make frosting a bit of a mess. So I opted to make the cake a day ahead and place in the refrigerator to chill. When frosting time came, it was smooth sailing all the way.

HCB: Chocolate Layer Cake with Caramel Ganache

August 30, 2010 by Monica in Baking, Baking Club, Cake, Cookbooks, Desserts, HCB, Sweets

It felt good to bake this weekend. While I did cook up a storm in Vermont, it was mostly savory stuff, I did bake once and since the cabin kitchen lacked a lot of the basic equipment, I choose to do the most simply baking possible by picking this recipe.

So, when I got back, I was ready to tackle something difficult, something that would force me to use all of my bowls, KA, baking pans, and gazillion spoons and spatulas.

Internet, I washed so many dishes over the weekend, I lost count.

But, I was happy to be back in my fully stocked kitchen.

Unfortunately, I was not very happy with this week’s Heavenly Cake choice. Which I’m still trying to come to terms with. I mean, come on! Chocolate and caramel? What in heaven’s name can go wrong with those two?

Around my house, apparently something.

HCB: Chocolate Feather Bed

August 16, 2010 by Monica in Baking, Baking Club, Cake, Cookbooks, Desserts, HCB

I’m surprise that I had the right frame of mind to bake our HBC choice cake this past weekend. Why? Because my mind was not fully engage in baking pans, measuring cups or stacking delicate layers of chocolate cake between light whipped ganache.

Instead my mind was thinking of a certain lakeside cabin, kayaking trips, hiking thru the woods, wardrobe combinations, airline tickets, car rentals, weather projections, balloon festivals and how my spotty French was going to get me thru a day trip in Montreal.

In 5 days, we are out of this hot hell we call Florida and flying to the north for some serious vacation-lazy time.

But, after 3 weeks of fruit dessert surplus, we were back in business with none other than a major chocolate overload choice, and I just could not pass it up.

The picture of this cake in the book is one of my favorite, if not THE favorite. It looks rustic, rich and decadent and a bit of a show-stopper – my kind of cake.

The catch?