May | 2016 | Is this a keeper?

This dessert certainly has the “wow” factor…and I have to say it is ALL about that Swedish Sugar on top!

As I was reading through the recipe, I was so thankful Dorie included where to buy the sugar…I went right to the King Arthur’s website and there it was, and not too expensive. I decided if I was making this recipe, I had to go for it….and I am so glad I did!

The hardest part about this recipe, is finding the time. I broke the recipe down into parts and spread it over two days and that didn’t seem too bad…but definitely not the type of recipe you whip up for a dinner party.

I had read about others having trouble with their mixers handling the brioche dough, but thankfully mine was fine. My frustration came with the pastry cream…which shouldn’t have been that tough. Mine seemed to thicken way too fast and too much. I wasn’t sure if I should continue with it or not but I remember other posts stating this pastry cream was to die for so I saved it and hoped for the best. The next day, it was too thick to whisk it so I put it back into my mixer to loosen it up a bit. I ended up adding more whipped cream to it than the 1/4 of a cup but you know what…everyone loved it. Phew!

After baking the dough, it was just a matter of slicing it and layering the cream in the middle. Everyone agreed, if I was to make this again, adding fruit would take it over the top.

My daughter says it looked just like the picture in the cookbook…yay! (although at this point it was half gone)..and that it tasted great too! What more can you ask for?

I think all of my tasters were very intrigued and excited by this dessert. No one had ever had anything like it so they didn’t know what to expect. They all thought the sugar looked like pretzel salt so it was a nice crunchy surprise to have it be bits of sugar….which complimented the not so sweet dessert. It was fun watching them taste it because everyone started out cautious, not knowing what this would be like…and then everyone went on to finish it and rave about it! They all say…it is a keeper!

I think think the recipe’s name says it all…this is a chocolate lovers dream. I had one taster say this was the best thing she had ever eaten…now I think that might have been a slight exaggeration…but…everyone did love this!

I made this for Mother’s Day and made the raspberry coulis to go along with it. Interestingly, some people loved the cake with it, and others loved the cake plain. I personally think if I was to make this again, I would use ice cream between the three cake layers like one of the options stated. I think that would be amazing! :)…I am already thinking chocolate chip and mint chip!!

One thing I did like about this recipe was that I could make the cake layers a few days ahead and freeze them. This makes it a perfect “taking to a party” kind of cake. The day of the event you can pull out the frozen layers and make your ganache and frost. It came together very easily and looks quite impressive. The only trouble I had was making the white chocolate ribbons and I think that was probably because of the chocolate bar I used. Mine turned out more like shavings than ribbons. I couldn’t find a thick slab like I was picturing in my head, but had to use a white chocolate bar which was too thin and made it difficult to carve out the ribbons. It still worked ok, but I would change how I did that next time.

This is a “one small slice” kind of dessert…a little goes a long way. It is so chocolately and decadent you don’t need much. That…and the fact it uses 3 and 1/2 sticks of butter…you only need a taste. 🙂 I think it was unanimous with the tasters, this one is a keeper!