A Dessert Chalenge
Friends of ours were moving to another state and as a farewell dinner party was being planned by other friends for them, of course I would offer to make the dessert.
I told Dan I would be more than happy to make any dessert he and Kathryn would like.
Dan was very appreciative of my offer but he had one condition.
He said it had to be a dessert worth remembering! Ok, He has had other desserts I have made including a Christmas Stollen , I was taken aback at first, worth remembering, I considered all my desserts worth remembering!
I settled down and accepted the challenge, after all I love challenges, I thrive on them, I look for them, even create them !
So the bar has been set!
The criteria for the dessert, yeah , worth remembering, but his was a personal challenge, one that had to go above and beyond were no man has gone before! A little Star Trek humor. Nevertheless it was personal to me!
Our lovely hostess & host Nancy & Chris Hertz, she a talented painter and author, He an accomplished musician singer song writer. Check out their page
www.BrokenStoneFairyTale.com
http://chrishertz.com/
Nancy is gluten intolerant so this dessert not only has to excel but has to be gluten free!
I made a test cake of flourless chocolate cake with a filling of rich dark chocolate pudding topped with diced maraschino cherries another cake layer with a center filling of cherry vanilla pudding another cake layer chocolate pudding, diced cherries and a final cake layer top.
It was frosted with chocolate whipped cream and wrapped with a chocolate wrap topped with whipped cream. I placed a doily on top and dusted it with cocoa powder then added dark modeling chocolate roses.
Deliciously rich chocolate layers of varying flavors, beautiful ! But impossible to cut neatly because of the wrap.
The solution : individual cakes .
Four layers of a light flourless chocolate cake, each moistened with cherry brandy, topped with dark chocolate pudding and this time I used diced fresh pitted diced Bing cherries. Each filling layer was alternated with creamy milk chocolate pudding.
I placed them in the refrigerator to firm up before coating with lightly sweetened whipped cream, then back in the refrigerator to firm up again while I made the chocolate lace wrap.
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| draw design on parchment paper flip over pipe melted chocolate onto design place tray with design in refrigerator 1 minute to set slightly |
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| remove from refrigerator gently line up parchment and wrap cake place back in refrigerator to set hard |
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| when set gently peel off parchment |
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| using a sharp knife warmed in hot water carefully cut off excess |
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| you may have a piece break, let it be back of cake |
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| pipe whipped cream around edge to support lace wrap |
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| pipe a mound of whipped cream onto center |
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| place tinted white chocolate rose on mound |
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| one each for geusts |
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| add piped whipped cream around base |
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| I used fresh chocolate mint leaves from our garden to finish note: any frosting of choice may be used, I chose whipped cream to soften the rich chocolate flavors here is a links to the chocolate lace wrap and roses there are many on you tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-RM7JyToew https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34aSpbvdD-k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI9P2uq_mOU Thanks for visiting !! |
