Monday, March 14, 2011

RHC: Devil's Food Cake with Midnight Ganache

Devil's Food Cake with Midnight GanacheI learned from my experiences with last week's cake-of the week: I read the recipe carefully and in advance this time! I made the cognac cherries (sans the extra corn syrup) the night before. I made the ganache at about 9 in the morning--tackling caramel sauce while still working on the morning coffee is a challenge, as is not just spooning up the caramel sauce instead of making ganache with it. Devil's Food Cake with Midnight GanacheThen in the afternoon I baked the cakes, let them cool, then was ready to put it all together except...the ganache was still very soft. It had been 7 hours sitting at room temperature but was still gloopy, to use a technical term. I gave it a few sessions in the fridge which helped some, but it was still really too soft when I decided I had to frost the cake.


Devil's Food Cake with Midnight GanacheThat perhaps explains why this was the most uncooperative cake I'd ever seen for frosting. The layers were fairly level, I decided not to put the cognac cherries in the middle because it looked like a recipe for instability and serving difficulties to me, and still the top layer wanted to slide to the side. Three times I just shoved the frosted layer back into place, and once I took a long spatula and lifted it, frosting and all, to a new position. When all the repeated passes on frosting was starting to lift sections of cake, I quit. All the efforts didn't matter, and the result was a rather bulgy cake with vague swirls--all I could do without tearing up the cake.

Devil's Food Cake with Midnight GanacheBut that's OK, it tasted good. The cognac cherries, served on the side, really added a punch. Younger niece felt the cherries should have been in the cake to relieve the chocolate intensity. Everyone else just said "really good". Once again I thought the cake was too dry for my tastes, but the pile of intensely dark-chocolate ganache was well able to provide the lacking moistness of the cake.

6 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear that you didn't like this one. Your cake looks very pretty though - love the swirls. I agree that the ganache is really soft, but I thought it's very yummy.

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  2. JennZ: Oh, no, I liked the cake overall--it just gave me fits trying to frost the thing. The lovely ganache flavor makes up for any sins, including the frosting difficulties.

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  3. i think your cake looks wonderful, and i would never have guessed it gave you so much trouble. if you even encounter a sliding cake layer again, you could stake it with a straw or wooden skewer so that it behaves.

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  4. I thought your cake looks wonderful too! I didn't know you had so much trouble with it if you hadn't mentioned. I wanted to bake this but now that you don't like..i m not sure ..

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  5. Your cake looks delicious - each week is a new discovery. My guests loved this decadent delight!
    Good job.

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  6. Brilliant to serve the cherries on the side. I pulverized mine for the same reason as you then gave up and put them on top.

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