We had an absolutely WONDERFUL time with our neighbors last evening.
Diana and Spiro were, as always, the perfect hosts, with great food and company and we had the added pleasure of hearing the charming Corrine (their daughter) sing some lovely bluesy songs, accompanied by her guitar.
We sat under the stars til well past midnight. In spite of the fact that everyone was stuffed with good food.
Each neighbor brought something to add to the souvlaki feast, so of course we all had to try some of each others food, meaning everyone was stuffed by dessert.
Never the less, the chocolate cake did get plenty of nibbles and compliments. I managed to bring home a few pieces for my faithful "taster". (IN the interests of photography and science I had to separate this tiny piece from the herd - before said taster devoured it all!)
I must say that I pronounce this iteration to be really nice!
It's the same basic chocolate cake as the previous posting, but instead of almonds and almond essence, I used pecans and vanilla essence.
My faithful "taster" requested a white frosting this time.
As more of a variation, while the cake was cooling, I boiled up about a half a cup of marmalade til it was a syrup, and pour it evenly over the cooling cake (which I'd punched a few toothpick holes in) and let it all cool completely before frosting.
I frosted it with a standard buttercream frosting, soft butter, icing sugar, pinch of salt, (mixed together well) adding some warmed cream - BUT I mixed the cream with Cointreau and a couple of drops of orange essence!
VERY yum.
So ends the post, so I can finish this experiment before it goes stale.
[as a PS to the post, there was also a beautiful lemon cheesecake made by neighboring chef Angie that was "to die for" delicious, which is why I had to conduct this tasting today as I only had room for the one dessert last night!]
Oh that cake sounds absolutely delicious.
ReplyDeleteAnd it sounds like you had a perfect evening.
It was one of my better attempts. The orange and chocolate went very well together. (it reminded me of those biscuits, which of course, i now no longer remember the name of...! the soft ones with the orange jelly filling and the chocolate topping?)
ReplyDeleteAnyway. Back to the diet!
Jaffa cakes.....mmmmmm!
ReplyDeleteYES! that's what I was thinking of!! Thank you Ayak.
ReplyDeletesouvlaki, chocolate and being serenaded under the stars.......sounds like the perfect greek evening......
ReplyDeletep.s. i remember jaffa cakes very well -- when we lived in england they were my little sisters' favorites!!!
It really was a perfect Greek evening! But it's always so much nicer when it's at someone's home with good friends. (to me anyway!)
ReplyDeleteWithout really trying to, I seem to have successfully mimicked the jaffa cake flavour. (Maybe it was using Rose's Orange Marmalade?) Anyway, I'm going to try doing THAT recipe again... chocolate and oranges go very well together!)
Your cake must have been delicious, my favorite chocolate is Harry London's 70% Dark Chocolate with Orange. Great flavors!
ReplyDeleteI need to go back and copy your recipe!
chocolate covered orange peels....
ReplyDelete