Blackberry Chocolate Ruffle cake

Copyright 2011 LtDan'sKitchen blogs

For my birthday early this year, I made the choice to treat myself to something more challenging in terms of baking a birthday cake for myself. For this to happen, there is this one cake that I've always wanted to bake but never had the guts to go for it. I've made the mistake of making a 14-layer cake for a friend once (not the choice of baking him a cake, just the choice of the cake) but that was nothing compared to this cake I had in mind, the Raspberry Chocolate Ruffle Cake.

Why was this a challenge? Well, for one, there are so many techniques involved in creating this masterpiece that I had to convince myself it was worth a try and that I can do it. The presentation of the cake depended on making chocolate ruffles so there is the first challenge for me. I have no experience when it comes to making forms out of melted chocolate except to make truffles (which is a no-brainer) nor do I have all the right equipment to do so. The second challenge is finding the right tool in making the chocolate ribbon. I finally settled on using a plastic kitchen liner so that was an easy fix to this problem. Third, I needed to make crème fraiche. I've tried different versions of crème fraiche recipes before but it usually takes days before I can get it to the right consistency. I decided to follow what was given in the recipe and it actually took me only one day to get it right so that is another problem solved. Suffice it to say that I just bit the bullet and took the chance on the ruffles and it came out quite good. Raspberries were not in season when I made this cake so I used blackberries instead and the overall result was still amazing.

Copyright 2011 LtDan'sKitchen blogs

I have the full recipe in my book but this cake was actually shown on TV in Julia Child's PBS show Baking with Julia. I'm enclosing the link to the recipe which also includes a video on how to make this cake. If you have the time and the chance, I say go for it. It is definitely worth the time and the stress but you end up with a truly wonderful cake that is actually very light in texture despite how heavy it looks with all the chocolate pieces that surrounds it. I will definitely have to give it another go this summer. Bon appetit!