Chocolate-Espresso Dacquoise #CakeSliceBaker
December represents the finishing of one cake book and the preparing for new one. I have really enjoyed baking out of The Perfect Cake. I have used several of their recipes for a special treat for my family (the microwave mug cakes were early favorites) as well as meal enders for special occasions. The clear instructions have given me courage to try baking cakes that went a little beyond my usual comfort zone.
The Cake Slice Bakers have a tradition of allowing each baker free choice of any recipe in that year's cook book for our December bake. I chose a cake that had tempted me back in February but definitely felt outside my abilities, the Chocolate-Espresso Dacquoise.
A dacquoise is a meringue that has finely chopped nuts folded in before baking. For this cake, there are hazelnuts and almonds added to the meringue. Often, you bake each layer separately, but America's Test Kitchen recommends baking one long sheet and then cutting into four separate rectangles. I must confess, three of my four broke during the cutting process. This did not cause any problem for assembly as each layer was coated in ganache and espresso buttercream. The step-by-step assembly pictures in the book made this completely understandably and easy to do. The entire cake is then covered with the buttercream and more ganache and the sides coated with almonds for a cake that looks almost as lovely as it tastes.
The buttercream used in this recipe is something called a German buttercream. Until I made this cake, I had never made anything other than a traditional American buttercream. Oh my! Have I been missing out. The texture was so smooth I could easily have just eaten that and skipped the rest of the cake. I will definitely be experimenting with other cooked buttercreams in the future.
I wasn't sure how this cake would be received by my family (especially the youngest), but it was universally loved. One of my children declared that he wanted this to be his birthday cake next year.
The Cake Slice Bakers have a tradition of allowing each baker free choice of any recipe in that year's cook book for our December bake. I chose a cake that had tempted me back in February but definitely felt outside my abilities, the Chocolate-Espresso Dacquoise.
A dacquoise is a meringue that has finely chopped nuts folded in before baking. For this cake, there are hazelnuts and almonds added to the meringue. Often, you bake each layer separately, but America's Test Kitchen recommends baking one long sheet and then cutting into four separate rectangles. I must confess, three of my four broke during the cutting process. This did not cause any problem for assembly as each layer was coated in ganache and espresso buttercream. The step-by-step assembly pictures in the book made this completely understandably and easy to do. The entire cake is then covered with the buttercream and more ganache and the sides coated with almonds for a cake that looks almost as lovely as it tastes.
The buttercream used in this recipe is something called a German buttercream. Until I made this cake, I had never made anything other than a traditional American buttercream. Oh my! Have I been missing out. The texture was so smooth I could easily have just eaten that and skipped the rest of the cake. I will definitely be experimenting with other cooked buttercreams in the future.
I wasn't sure how this cake would be received by my family (especially the youngest), but it was universally loved. One of my children declared that he wanted this to be his birthday cake next year.
You had me at ganache and buttercream. Your cake looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteThis looks delicious, Kim! I was also tempted by the dacquoise. I think this would be a wonderful birthday cake :)
ReplyDeleteI can see why it was universally loved, look at that chocolate buttercream. You have definitely convinced me that I need to look into cooked buttercream since I am not always a fan of the regular American one.
ReplyDelete