Bernachon Palet D'Or Gateau

Heavenly Cake Bakers, a group of incredible bakers using Rose's Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum for weekly inspiration. Yes, I joined just waiting for official confirmation that I'm in. But, that won't stop me from this week's challenge- nope. My only hope is that I can create cakes half as good as those I have seen so far.

This week's challenge is a mouthful in many ways. The Bernachon Palet D'Or Gateau is a wonderfully beautiful, (cover photo for the cookbook) cake. I was ready for a challenge and this did not disappoint.

The first step is to put together and bake the chocolate cake base. The sour cream addition to the cake batter gave it a smooth texture and fine crumb.The cake uses only cocoa powder here for its rich chocolate taste.The ganache layer however is something else indeed.

For this layer Rose's recipe calls for a chocolate ganache with the addition of sour cream for a little tang. I however decided, since I was craving peanut butter for two days that I better make a ganache with some tasty, creamy peanut butter. I used the chocolate peanut butter ganache recipe on page 186 to satisfy my craving. Since the chocolate takes center stage in either version of ganache it is important to use a good chocolate. I have in my arsenal a semi-sweet Callebaut for just such an occassion.

The final step is a thin illustrious Chocolate Laquer Glaze. Again this uses cocoa powder, not that that is a bad thing just different than the galzes I've used in the past. But the result is an incredible shine and beautiful presentation.

The only problem I ran into is that the glaze remained quite wet even after 12hrs. The only reason I can think of is that is is very humid here and may have contributed to the wetness. My testers all agree that this cake is very good and encourage me to keep on baking!!! I am very happy with Rose's book and the resulting cakes that I have made thus far.