Carrément Chocolat, The Fancy Cake

We left the showstopper for last!

This is our final bake today in our cookbook Baking Chez Moi. We began the journey with our first post Nov. 11, 2014…almost 6 years to the day. It is hard to believe, and a little bittersweet. Twice a month for 6 years and we are done! This is my second full cookbook I have baked through with these lovely ladies in my baking group…the first being Baking With Julia. We are currently baking in two others, so the fun will not be stopping any time soon. Thank goodness, because I just love this creative outlet…and I know my tasters love it too! 😂

This cake was a great one to leave for last…it definitely has the wow factor. There are a lot of steps, and it takes a long time…but nothing is terribly hard.

Dorie tells us this cake, in traditional French fashion, is a low cake but that if we want a taller gâteau, we can double the cake layers. I only have one 8in cake pan so I made the one layer and thought oh wow that is pretty thin, especially for sharing so I went ahead and made another layer. Interestingly, the batter is created in a food processor and processed for 6 min until the mixture is light, liquidy, and full of bubbles.

After baking the cakes, I went on to make…what we thought was the best part…the salted chocolate shards, and then the chocolate filling and chocolate ganache glaze. This cake screams chocolatey goodness. There is some assembling and chilling required…and then the unveiling.

It really is a beautiful cake.

Everyone loved this…I mean, what is not to love…unless you are not a chocolate fan…and I just don’t understand that 😂😂. We were surprised that the cake was not overly sweet or chocolatey! I was thinking…by the amount of chocolate used in this cake and all it’s parts it would border on too rich to finish, but that was just not the case.

Very gourmet. Very bakery-like.

What a way to end it…congrats TWD group! I can’t believe we are finished. 🎉🎉🎉

Triple-Layer Parsnip and Cranberry Cake

This is one of the grandest looking cakes I have made. We are told it “blares ‘Celebration’!” and now after making it, I totally see why.

We are told it is “full of flavor, based on nuts cranberries and grated parsnips, a vegetable that might not spring to mind immediately when you are thinking cake”. We have 3 cakes that are layered with a cream cheese frosting and also a gingered-cranberry jam. It is then finished with a barely there coating of frosting on the side and topped with sugared cranberries, which I think steal the show.

I made this cake over two days, taking the tip from Dorie and that helped a lot with this cake. It also allowed for the assembling and chilling to be done for a perfect time to share on the second day. There is nothing terribly hard about this recipe, but it does take time.

I have to tell you, there was nothing really that excited me about this cake. 😳. I am not a fan of most of the ingredients and I have never bought or tasted parsnips so I just didn’t know what to expect…it didn’t help that it was likened to a carrot cake..which I am not a fan, nor are most of my family and tasters.

And yet…

This cake smelled heavenly while baking! It looked beautiful when finished and really does make you happy as Dorie pointed out in her intro. We all gave it a try, and would you believe…apparently we are all big parsnip fans 😂😂. This cake was divine…I mean absolutely delicious. Everyone loved it…and was equally shocked by the look and taste. This is the type of cake I would say would be worth the effort to make for a gathering. It is that good…and so, so unexpected.

What a keeper!

Roasted Acorn Squash Wedges

We love roasted vegetables so we were interested in trying this recipe with acorn squash, which is a new one for us.

The squash is prepped, cut into wedges and then brushed with a mixture of olive oil, pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, pinch of cayenne, and za’atar which is a seasoning mix based on thyme and oregano. The squash is then roasted for about 30min until easily pierced with a fork.

My husband thought these were ok, I didn’t actually care for them which was a bummer and weird because I love many vegetables. I was looking forward to adding a new vegetable into our rotations. I also now have pomegranate molasses to find a use for haha. All good though. It is always fun to try out something new because you never know…it might become the new favorite!! 😃