Its based on his aunt's cassata's filling and a recipe
for chocolate icing that I found in a Time-Life Italian cookbook.
Its actually the best thing I make.
It takes forever to do.
Anyhow, I had it all made
and resting in the refrigerator.
My husband and I went out to get him
a present. I come back and...
Well this is my dog Blizzard.
This is what the cake is supposed to look like.
We came home and the refrigerator door was open
and a big piece of the cake was missing.
Please excuse the messy fridge.
Needless to say I was pretty upset.
Also, chocolate is very bad for dogs.
However, he didn't get sick.
I planned to blog about this cake but not under
these circumstances.
To make the cake you need a spongecake.
I use the one from The Fanny Farmer Cookbook.
Separate 5 eggs. Beat the whites
until they stand up in soft peaks. Beat in a tablespoon
at a time 1/4 sugar.
Without washing the beaters,
beat the egg yolks with 1 tablespoon lemon
juice until thick and lemon colored. Add 3/4
cups sugar gradually. Pour over the whites and fold
in gently. Sift together 1 cup flour 1/4 teaspoon salt.
Gently fold flour mixture into the egg mixture.
Pour into 2 nine inch cake pans lined with
parchment paper and bake at 350F for about 20 minutes.
Let cool and slice in half horizontally.
For the filing.
2 pounds of ricotta
1 cup of sugar
1/4 cup orange flavor liqueur (or any flavor you like)
1/4 cup finely chopped chocolate
1/4 cup candied fruit (I use candied grapefruit peel that I make
at christmas)
Beat ricotta till nice and smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients.
Assemble the cake. Take one later of the cake. Sprinkle
with liqueur put in 1/3 of ricotta mixture.
Put cake layer on top of that. Sprinkle with
liqueur. Put 1/3 of ricotta mixture. Another piece of cake.
SPrinkle, ricotta, add the lid.
I stick bamboo skewers in the cake to stabilize it.
Wrap in plastic wrap and put in the refridgerator
for 1 day!!!
Make the icing:
Over a double boiler melt 12 oz
semisweet chocolate. Add 2/3 cup
very strong coffee. When nicely melted,
turn off the heat and stir in a tablespoon
at a time 2 sticks unsalted butter.
When all done put in the fridge
to let it harden up. It takes a while
for it to become spreadable. Check it
out every so often and when its good
decorate your cake. The icing is like a
truffle filling. Really yummy.
The cake does well to rest for a while.
Pour into 2 nine inch cake pans lined with
parchment paper and bake at 350F for about 20 minutes.
Let cool and slice in half horizontally.
For the filing.
2 pounds of ricotta
1 cup of sugar
1/4 cup orange flavor liqueur (or any flavor you like)
1/4 cup finely chopped chocolate
1/4 cup candied fruit (I use candied grapefruit peel that I make
at christmas)
Beat ricotta till nice and smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients.
Assemble the cake. Take one later of the cake. Sprinkle
with liqueur put in 1/3 of ricotta mixture.
Put cake layer on top of that. Sprinkle with
liqueur. Put 1/3 of ricotta mixture. Another piece of cake.
SPrinkle, ricotta, add the lid.
I stick bamboo skewers in the cake to stabilize it.
Wrap in plastic wrap and put in the refridgerator
for 1 day!!!
Make the icing:
Over a double boiler melt 12 oz
semisweet chocolate. Add 2/3 cup
very strong coffee. When nicely melted,
turn off the heat and stir in a tablespoon
at a time 2 sticks unsalted butter.
When all done put in the fridge
to let it harden up. It takes a while
for it to become spreadable. Check it
out every so often and when its good
decorate your cake. The icing is like a
truffle filling. Really yummy.
The cake does well to rest for a while.
4 comments:
Oh no!!!!
I'm sorry: I laughed an awful lot. Feel terrible now. :-S Especially since it looks like such a wonderful cake and your dog looks so sweet.
Heaven, me too, I must admit that I laughed and feel immensely sad for all the effort you put into making that beautiful cake. Obviously it was so delicious and smelled so good that your dog managed to open the door and eat half of it. Your dog is very cute too. Happy birthday to your dh.
Have you ever used carob in place of chocolate?
I know many people avoid carob, but I find that the trick is to find the right brand and then you'll really see that carob can be (almost) as good as chocolate.
The brand I use is from Holy Food Imports,
which comes from Israel, so it does have an excellent and unique taste.
LOL our dog did that to our wedding cake before the wedding. We all got a kick out of it when we served the cake and I am happy to say there was not a single person (small wedding) that refused to eat the cake after the dog had tried it.
We did fix the cake up so it looked good for the photos and such...good thing photos are taken from one side
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