3/99: Designer Chocolate Baby Grands

Rose's Designer Chocolate Baby Grands look absolutely amazing in her book.  They look smoother than Reeses cups and she comments that they are great for dinner parties.  I added a little chocolate flair to the top of mine and they turned out ok:

So a good rule to go by: If you are making something that is supposed to turn out beautiful, don't be an absent minded chef.



Basically, what happened was I got a little distracted. We were preparing for the bridal shower this afternoon so they were the last thing on my mind.  It basically used the same recipe as the German Chocolate cake so i thought this would be a good time to redeem myself.  I got the water temperature perfect and then got it to room temperature so that it would mix right.

But in my hurried pace, I added all of the eggs at one time instead of adding the yolks at one point and the whites at another. My batter didn't get thick enough and it ended up separating in the cupcake tins. who knew that it could mess it up so much! check out how nasty they are pre-damage control:

AAAH!

What redeemed them was the two layers of chocolate topping.  First you poke holes all in it (not a problem since there were already so many holes (grr) and then you pour the Milk Chocolate Ganache Syrup on top.  Wal-Mart didn't have the 40-41% milk chocolate that I was supposed to use so I ended up using 49% that seemed more dark than milk.  yum.

Then, once that hardens, you add the Lacquer Glaze.  This is where the other mess up happened. Shower craziness, cleaning, people arriving... I forgot to add the gelatin mixture to the chocolate glaze! As a result it didn't harden and the weight pushed the cupcake liners even further away from the cupcake.   But with a little almond bark and some emergency refrigeration, everything turned out well.  I probably wouldn't make them again because for the taste I don't think they were worth the trouble.  I got lots of compliments though and people seemed pleased.

Rose's Heavenly Cakes

Designer Chocolate Baby Grands- page 303

Milk Chocolate Ganache Syrup- page 305

Lacquer Glaze- page 306