Tuesday, March 18, 2014

mocha brownie cake with whisper creek ganache: a tuesdays with dorie post

for this weeks challenge, the tuesdays with dorie bakers baked up marcel desaulniers mocha brownie cake recipe from the book, baking with julia.   with a texture more like a devil's food cake, this rich little cake wasn't much of a brownie for this chocolate fan.  did that make it a poor choice for a chocolate fix?  no, especially not with the thick coat of ganache on top of each little two-bite cake.  but truth be told, i would much rather have a traditional, dense and dark chocolate brownie.

the recipe calls this a mocha brownie cake.  that was a bit confusing since the cake itself had not a drop of coffee in it.  to punch up the mocha flavor, i tried to add a bit of coffee extract to it but did not add enough-my fear of over doing it cancelled out my good intentions.  the result was just a really strong chocolate flavored cake with the texture of a devil dog; remember those?  for the ganache frosting, i decided to switch the coffee, a mere 1/4 cup, for an equal portion of whisper creek tennessee sipping cream.  it seemed like the perfect choice for a dessert to be served at a pot luck dinner.  trust me, it was.  i came home with an empty plate.  good thing i stashed a few at home for my husband and me to indulge in!

as a rule, we do not post the recipes we bake from.  it isn't fair to the author for us to give away the recipes without permission.  my suggestion, buy a copy of the book or borrow it from a library or a friend.  honestly, it isn't hard to find; i found it on several websites with a quick google search.

the mini cupcake pan baked up 24 cakes plus a few large hearts to make a shamrock.  the ganache recipe was more than i needed to frost the tops of all of the cakes.  i had plenty left for the ones i stashed-we couldn't skimp on the frosting for those!

yeah, it's hokey.  so what, this green eyed irish girl (hey, i'm also italian-what a combo!) had to get a little festive for the pot luck!  not sure that anyone noticed it though...

and this is how the husband and i indulged; laid out on a silver platter with a bit of sipping cream to wash it down...perfect. chocolate. indulgence!!!

be sure to check out the tuesdays with dorie page to see how the other bakers fared.  perhaps, bake up a batch yourself.  if you do, the whisper creek substitution is worth trying.  and no, they did not pay me to say that-i do not do endorsements and do not accept payments or advertising.  but if someone wants to give me a bottle to bake with, i won't turn it down!  the truth is that i happen to have an open bottle in the fridge and grabbed it rather than brewing up a pot of coffee just for a 1/4 cup, and i am glad i did!  bake on friends!

9 comments:

  1. They look beautiful!!
    What better compliment than came home with an empty plate, isn't it?
    Great luscious chocolate recipe!!!

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  2. Lovely little bites of chocolate cake. Great idea!

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  3. I love your cupcake version!!!! Such decadent minis!!!!

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  4. Your mini cupcakes look scrumptious. Love the way you decorated these.

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  5. "sipping cream" sounds wonderful! (I used baileys in my ganache.) I certainly wouldn't turn down one of those beautifully decorated cakelettes at a potluck.

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  6. Adding the sipping cream would have made a beautiful ganache! I love what you did with the little cakes. I also thought the cake was less brownie like than expected, but with the ganache it was a hit, maybe I'll try the ganache on other cakes too.

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  7. Ha, I like the shamrock version.
    I didn't pick up on the devil dog texture - but that totally makes sense. (I was hoping for more brownie like too...)

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  8. Great looking mini versions! Way easier I'm sure, than making the layer cake, that had to chill after each layer of ganache. I too prefer a more dense and moist brownie, than this cake.

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