FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - Truffle-like cake wins 'intense' chocolate recipe contest

Dee Randall

"Alex Rast" > wrote in message
...
> at Tue, 02 May 2006 07:09:34 GMT in
> .com>,
> (-L.) wrote :
>
>>
>>Rusty wrote:
>>> Truffle-like cake wins 'intense' chocolate recipe contest
>>>
>>> April 28, 2006
>>>
>>> http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/in...&screen=news&n
>>> ews_id=49462
>>>
>>
>>Ok, so the "cake" is chocolate, salt and eggs? Sounds more like
>>chocolate quiche. Yuck.
>>-L.
>
> Well, to be exact, chocolate, butter, salt and eggs. This is a pretty
> standard take on the flourless chocolate cake theme. Flourless chocolate
> cakes actually turn out really well. The basic idea is that you're making
> an extremely dense chocolate custard. Alternatively, you could consider it
> a super-dense chocolate mousse. Same basic premise. Interestingly, you're
> correct in one respect, the texture does turn out a lot like quiche (or to
> be exact, the filling part of it). I agree that this is stretching the
> definition of "cake" a lot, and certainly it's nothing at all like a
> classic cake, which is why in many respects I prefer the term Chocolate
> Decadence which indicates that this is very much an unique object. I think
> that people call it cake because it's baked, it's round like a cake, you
> cut it up into slices, and it doesn't have a crust (in which case it'd be
> a
> pie)
>
> One regrettable aspect IMHO is that the emergence of chocolate decadence
> has made really good classic chocolate cake a rare thing indeed. Because
> chocolate decadence is so very strong and chocolatey, very few bakeries
> make a good, powerful, chocolatey chocolate cake any more, because the
> real
> chocoholics will tend to opt for a decadence-like creation, while those
> left who take chocolate cake will generally prefer something milder like
> "old-fashioned" chocolate cakes (often of '50's vintage) or devil's food
> cakes. I think there should still be a place for the intense classic
> chocolate cake - many times I'm not in the mood for chocolate decadence,
> particularly in winter when it just seems inappropriate. CD is more of a
> summer thing, especially since then you can get fresh raspberries for the
> sauce. However, it's a supply-and-demand thing, and I don't see many other
> people following my personal tastes.
>
> Actually, as I hinted at earlier, far too many restaurants and bakeries
> succumb to fashion. Chocolate decadence is itself becoming a bit rare,
> having been made passe by the introduction of the fallen chocolate cake
> (warm chocolate cake with a liquid centre). Ironically, this cake has the
> inverse problem of seasonal appropriateness: the *last* thing you want on
> a
> hot summer day is a hot chocolate cake. And if you want to be truly
> current, the fallen chocolate cake is in turn obsolescent. Drinking
> chocolate is the big thing among the mass market outfits today. In higher-
> end places I'm seeing a lot of chocolate mousse cakes lately. So it
> goes...
>
>
>
>
> --
> Alex Rast
>
> (remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

Alex, I always appreciate your knowledgeable comments.
Dee Dee