87/99: Devil's Food Cake with Midnight Ganache

Great cake, bad timing (silly Lent).

My time is ticking so that means I have cake sitting around all the time with the push to get the made. As a result  I halved the recipe for the devil's food cake.  It was a delicious cake but I am really glad that I halved it because, like I said, I feel like I have cake pouring out of my house.

I didn't have any dried sour cherries or cognac so I decided to add some Chambord to the ganache instead of the cherry cognac.  It was a good decision.

This cake, second to the Chocolate Feather Bed, is one of the most chocolatey cake in the book.  it has 99% cacao chocolate as well as cocoa powder with some light brown sugar and sour cream.  The cake itself is moist and thickly chocolatey while the ganache tastes like chocolate fudge. Yum!

Everyone in my life now seems to be on a diet so I ended up throwing the leftovers away this afternoon.  I just realized that I should brought some to my friend Kesha (shout out to her for her faithful blog reading) but too late. Maybe next time!

I'm almost down to the single digits in the cakes! I can't believe I've made it this far.   I REALLY want to finish on time but its definitely going to be a push...

Rose's Heavenly Cakes page 99

71/99: Holiday Pinecone Cake

I've been really nervous about making this cake.  My mom volunteered me to make a cake for our family's yearly Christmas get together so I figured that would be a good time to make it.

60/99: Marble Cake

 

I bought the Heritage bundt pan from William Sonoma a few weeks ago and have been dying to use it.  I just haven't had a bundt cake opportunity lately.  I used to really dislike bundt cakes because I thought they were boring and too grown up. A bundt cake is the Christmas gift from the neighbor that no one really wants.  I always think of My Big Fat Greek Wedding's quote, "there's a hole in this cake!" Honestly who can't relate? Why do we have cakes with holes in them?

But the heritage pan is just cool.  It's worth having a hole in the cake.  And totally worth making a bundt cake. I should have taken downward shot because it looks like a flying saucer.  And just so you know, flying saucer = cool.  (Note- this is not an advertisement / sponsored by Nordicware- I just really like their pan). 

26/99: Chocolate Feather Bed

 

I've been looking forward to this cake for quite a long time. The picture in Rose's book looks absolutely divine. 

Note to the taste tester or the interested baker: this cake can give you a heart attack. Oh my goodness. Here's the chocolate that was just in the ganache:

24/99: Mud Turtle Cupcakes

 

 

After I read Rose's description of these little cupcakes I was pretty pumped about making them.  Imagine this:

"First you encounter the taste of toasted whole pecans; quickly thereafter, the ganache "mud" mingling with the slightly sticky caramel; finally, your teeth sink into the most tender, full-flavored chocolate cake."

Are you drooling yet? I was.