Thursday, January 9, 2020

Spiced Chocolate Torte Wrapped in Chocolate Ribbons - a baking story

My parents had a family friend that was an amazing cook and baker when I was growing up.  I knew I liked to bake back then, but one Christmas she brought the most amazing looking cake.  I have never forgotten the look of the cake or the taste of the cake.  Decades have passed since that Christmas.

When my kids were younger I found the cake on the internet and made it for family friends.

Here is the cake recipe.

Typically I read the recipe and make sure I have all the ingredients, including the correct type of bittersweet chocolate and run.

And I started to make the cake and the buttercream and things were going well until the recipe said to freeze for two hours. . . . fine.

I did.

And I was back in the kitchen making the chocolate glaze.  Things were going well until I started the chocolate ribbons.

I was in the middle of making it and then it said to turn pasta machine to widest setting. . . . . what????  Pasta machine???  I don't have one of those!  I read the remaining recipe, and it turns out that my cake was going to be missing the ribbons.

Cake still looked good but wasn't perfect.

I presented the cake after dinner and cut into the chocolate spice cake, and my guests were silent.  They loved the cake.

And then I put the recipe away and pulled it out on New Years Eve 2019.

This time I knew my cake would be missing the ribbons, but boy did it taste amazing.


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