Chocolate Banana Stud Cake

The banana with it's more than 500 varieties is one of nature's more perfect foods. It contains 3 natural sugars, several different vitamins, minerals, and fiber. It is not only healthy but helps to overcome and prevent many illnesses and conditions. They can be eaten straight off the plant, baked into desserts, fried, broiled, steamed or sauteed. Bananas can be pureed and used to replace eggs in a dessert to reduce the fat content or aid in the conversion of a recipe to vegetarian. This week however, my mind was not on the healthful aspect of the banana but on it's sweet, heavenly flavor. Keep in mind when matched with chocolate its flavor can be over powered and may also result in a rubbery texture. This week the Heavenly Cake Bakers project was Chocolate Banana Stud Cake. Sounds sexy and complicated, right? Well, not this time! So, let's talk cake: The list of ingredients doesn't skimp on the good stuff, like butter, eggs, cake flour (ah, the promise of a soft crumb), cocoa (yes, again not an overpowering of chocolate- the banana will shine), sour cream (makes for a smooth consistency), vanilla extract and leavenings. Just a reminder: I hope that in not listing the measurements and recipe details that you are sufficently teased and are more likely to purchase your own copy of this lovely book (enough sales!!!). One of the details that seems to be repeated in many of Rose's chocolate cakes is the use of cocoa instead of squares or slabs. The baker is instructed to moisten the cocoa powder with boiling water and stir until smooth, then cover to cool. This technique I like very much and is probably one of the things I like best about this book. The remainder of the steps are very easy with no suprises. For this cake as with much of my baking I chose to make a half batch and use a smaller cake pan. It baked up nicely and unmolded without a hitch (thanks to the use of my beloved parchment paper). The cakes is finished off with a chocolate ganache which I applied thinly. As you will remember we are not big chocolate lovers. The "stud" look came from applying chocolate chips upside down around the top of the cake. I used both semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips. The slight haze over the top of my chips is from storing them in the refrigerator. If kept too cold some of the cocoa butter will rise to the surface of the chocolate. This does not alter the taste. If this cake was to be given away I would have used a new bag to avoid that haze.

The banana shares the spot light with chocolate amicably. The cake presents itself well and the taste is phenomenal. The fine texture and crumb earns it's place on my "favorites" list.

Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cake

This week with the Heavenly Bakers it was a Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cake. A multiple component project, the cake not only has multiple types of chocolate (white being my personal favorite) but the filling contains my beloved fruit the strawberry! How could this be anything but delicious! The cake is a soft and moist white chocolate cake with a luscious light strawberry mousseline filling and a dark chocolate frosting. Oh my! This is just spot on for satisfying multiple levels of you inner most desires. Rose's directions have never disappointed me and is one of the many reasons this is one of my favorite books.

Multiple components allows me to prepare in steps as I attempt to do with any baking project I take on. It helps keep life in this house running smooth. I like smooth, oh yeah back to cake, sorry.

The cake batter as mentioned contains white chocolate (mmmmmm..), eggs, milk, vanilla, cake flour (this promises to have a fine crumb now), sugar leavenings and of course BUTTER! Yes, I found this batter came together with ease and baked up very nicely. Oh yeah, btw: I always lick the beaters since my little one is no longer little and I have no competition for it except when my mother in-law is visiting! As you can see I chose to make only a half batch, and you can see it still baked up very nicely. Good to know since you can't always cut a recipe in half successfully.

The instructions did not mention how thick the layers should be and this is where I took some liberty that later I would reget. I had already tasted the batter and was more than happy to test the cake tops that were cut off, so I knew this cake was superb. I then decided (bad move) to keep the layers at 1 inch. Please learn by my mistake and make them 1/2" to 3/4" max when you get to this point.

Next ups is the strawberry mousseline. I do not find that mousseline spreads well after refrigeration so I did not prepare it in advance. Again Rose's directions were easy to follow and fool proof. The ingredients are; butter, eggs, sugar, water, cream of tarter, strawberry butter (I used pureed strawberry preserves), and vanilla. The butter is beaten until smooth and set aside. A sugar syup is made and heated to 248 to 250 degrees. Meanwhile the egg whites are beaten to stiff peaks with cream of tarter and some of the sugar. Then the sugar syrup is slowly poured into the beaten egg white to make a meringue. This is put in the refrigerator to cool to 70 degrees. Now I have to mention this is the aspect of Rose's Heavenly Cakes recipe that I love the most. Temperature. Temperature of components can be the difference between success and failure. If the recipe mentions temperature, whether it be of the butter or chocolate or in this case the meringue then it must be and this time was important. So be careful don't skip ahead or try to rush! Back to the business at hand... The meringue is added to the butter in portions with caution and beaten until well blended (again not so much that it seperates). The strawberry butter or preserves is added and the filling is complete and set aside.

On to putting it all together: Rose tell us to sandwich each layer with the strawberry mousseline topped with some of thr strawberry butter/puree. However, I got a little carried away with the strawberry and with my layers so thick this caused some instability. This you will see in my final picture and do the "tisk, tisk" noises along with me.

The frosting was next up as the final step to this wonderful cake. I had some trouble here which was either my impatience or humidity. The ingredients were; two dark chocolates a 99% cacao and a 62% cacao. I had to substitute a semi-sweet chocolate. Also some butter, corn syrup and vanilla was on the list. It seemed pretty straight forward and came out smooth and shiney as promised. I poured the top while is was still fluid and waited the requiset 30 minutes for the sides. But as you can see I wound up warming the frosting again and pouring. A big mistake I know that now. However, it is what I did.

All that being said I must say this is one of the best tasting cakes I've tasted. It was light, fine and moist. The strawberry mousseline was flavorful, smooth and creamy. The chocolate frosting was definitely a contrast but balanced. Overall, very nice! I hope you give this a try and share your frosting escapades with me. Or maybe some suggestions for the next time I give it a go.

Chocolate & Coconut Mousse Parfait

Inspiration comes from many sources. One of my favorite places to search is not only the many books and magazines in my collection but, other blogs. If you follow me at all you would know I love anything "mousse". So when I happened upon one of my favorites, Cannelle et Vanille, and she was featuring chocolate & coconut as a mousse on top of a hazelnut cake base. Well, I just couldn't resist. The cake portion or "biscuit" as it is referred to uses hazelnut flour, cocoa powder, egg whites and butter. Along with the usual leavenings this is the quick and easy part. The results is a very moist and very tasty cake base to compliment the next two layers. Next up is a delectable chocolate mousse using the eggs' golden treasure (yolks) & a wonderful Calebaut semi-sweet chocolate. The mousse is lightened with whipped cream and is ready for it's place on the cake. The only thing I would change is at this point I would prefer the mousse to be a little lighter. (A good excuse to make this again, huh!) The third and last layer is a scrumptious coconut mousse. Picture this: you have rich and smooth coconut flavored cream mixed with fresh grated coconut set up with gelatin and then lightened with whipped cream. Oooo yeah.... Now the finale: Simply sprinkle the top with more fresh grated coconut! Well, I thought I died and went to baking heaven when I tasted this beautiful dessert. My husband (not a big chocolate fan) loved it. And my son, well he likes anything homemade! (Taught him well!) If you are interested in obtaining this recipe I suggest you visit Cannelle et Vanille's blog. You won't regret it! Enjoy :)