baby rambutan

no, not mine! Julia Child’s, that is. i now declare myself officially “forever 25″ years old.
she would have been 97 years old this year, and her birthday is on August 15, but one bite of this cake and you’ll see why i had to make it.
this was concocted by Marcel Desaulniers–serious foodies will remember him, he’s one of the real chefs who truly deserved a cooking show, *sniff.
the description of the cake alone will convince you to try and make this cake. the combination of flavors truly honored the very essence of the woman to whom it was dedicated: butter. almonds. liqueurs. raspberries. chocolates. cream.
it took me two days to put it all together–due to time constraints, much to my children’s chagrin. i finally assembled the 4 9-inch cake layers with the mousse and ganache and served it to my favorite kids.
it only comes once a year (thank goodness) and though it’s alarming how aged we feel now, the joy of birthdays that the kids feel is quite contagious. the thrill of waiting for their birthdays makes my kids so ecstatically happy that it somehow makes up for the glaringly real ageing process their parents must go through now.
i’ll be the first to admit that it looks nothing like the photograph in the book–i think it suffered quite a lot from the very warm 90 degree days, so anomalous for spring, as much as from my amateurish baking skills, but here it is….mommy’s birthday cake, dedicated to the children i birthed.

4 layers of chocolate almond cake, filled with chocolate red raspberry mousse, and smothered with a combination of 12 ounces of dark chocolate and 4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate ganache.
you want to make?
let me know and i’ll type in the recipe.
recipe follows:
the chocolate almond cake:
preheat the oven to 325F. lightly coat the insides of 4 9-inch nonstick cake pans with some melted butter. line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper or wax paper, then lightly coat the paper with more melted butter. set aside.

in a sifter combine 2 & 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 tsp. baking soda, and 1 tsp. salt. sift onto a large piece of parchment paper and set aside until needed.

place 1/2 pound butter and 1 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle. mix on low speed for 1 minute, then beat on medium-high for 3 minutes until soft. use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle, then beat on medium-high for an additional minute. scrape down the sides of the bowl. add 2 eggs, one at a time, beating on medium for 20 seconds after each addition, and scraping down the sides of the bowl once both eggs have been incorporated. operate the mxier on low while gradually adding half the sifted dry ingredients; mix until incorporated, about 30 seconds. add 1/2 cup sour cream and 2 tsps. almond extract and mix on medium to combine, about 15 seconds. gradually add the remaining dry ingredients while mixing on low speed until combined, about 20 seconds. add 1/2 cup amaretto in a slow steady stream to combine, about 30 seconds. remove the bowl from the mixer add 3/4 cup sliced toasted almonds and 3 ounces finely grated semisweet baking chocolate, and use a rubber spatula to finish mixing the ingredients until thoroughly combined. immediately divide the cake batter into the prepared pans, about 1 & 1/2 cups of batter in each pan), spreading it evenly. bake on the top and center racks in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake layer comes out clean, about 20 minutes. remove the cakes from the oven and cool in the pans for 15 minutes at room temperature. invert the layers onto cake circles or directly onto cake plates. carefully peel the paper away from the bottoms of the cake layers. refrigerate the cake layers until needed.

chocolate red raspberry mousse:
place 2 & 1/4 cups heavy cream, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 tbsp. instant espresso powder in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a balloon whip. whisk on medium-high for 2 minutes until firm, but not stiff peaks form. add 1 & 1/2 cups of the whipped cream to 6 ounces melted unsweetened chocolate, and use rubber spatula to fold together until thoroughly combined. add the combined whipped cream and chocolate to the remaining whipped cream and use a rubber spatula to fold together until smooth and thoroughly combined. now use the rubber spatula to fold in 1 pint red raspberries.

Quintessential chocolate ganache:
place 12 ounces chopped semisweet chocolate and 4 ounces chopped unsweetened chocolate in a large bowl.
heat 2 cups heavy cream and 2 tbsps. sugar in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. when hot, stir to dissolve the sugar. bring to a boil. pour the boiling cream over the chopped chocolate. set aside for 5 minutes before stirring with a whisk until smooth.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 8:35 pm and is filed under chocolaterie, my cookie jar, sweets for my sweets, winged creatures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.