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From: , MA USA

Joined: May 2nd, 2011


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September 24th, 2012

The Baked Brownie from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

These were quite good! A couple of notes: first, the recipe calls for chocolate that contains 60-72% cocoa solids. I used 70% chocolate and for me, they were almost too sweet (though I still managed... read more >


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lovesgenoise's Reviews


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8 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 8Sort by: Title | Date | Rating

The Cake Bible

By Rose Levy Beranbaum
William Morrow Cookbooks - 1988

15th May 2011 (edited: 28th November 2011)

Bittersweet Cocoa-Almond Genoise : page 134

This sublime flourless cake is my all-time favorite chocolate cake, I return to it again and again. It is dense, supremely moist, tender, and has a little added texture from the ground almonds. It is a not-too-sweet cake, with a perfect balance of butter, toasted almonds and cocoa. Full-flavored yet mellow, it isn't as intense as the Chocolate Oblivion (also Cake Bible). It pairs well with dark ganache spiked with either rum or coffee, or with whipped cream.

For the best flavor, use a full-fat, dutched cocoa, or if you must use a lower-fat cocoa, substitute by weight, 75% low-fat cocoa and 25% chopped unsweetened chocolate (this corrects the cocoa butter content).

For the best texture, use ground almonds that are as fine as possible. If you are grinding them yourself, start with room temperature toasted sliced almonds and grind with some of the sugar from the recipe.

This recipe is a little more time-consuming than some, due to egg whites that are beaten separately and due to the need to toast and grind almonds if you opt not to buy toasted almond flour. But I like it so well I still make it more often than any other cake recipe.

The photo shows this cake after trimming and frosting with dark ganache with coffee.

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24th May 2011 (edited: 27th May 2011)

Chocolate Cherry Almond Pound Cake : page 32

Although I'm a huge fan of Ms. Beranbaum's work, I must admit that this recipe just didn't do it for me. As a pound cake, I found it too sweet and I missed the flavor of egg yolks. I also found the flavor of hazelnuts overpowered the chocolate, almond and cherries.

Fans of white cake or those with a sweet tooth may find this more to their liking than I did.

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22nd September 2011 (edited: 22nd September 2011)

Chocolate Domingo Cake : page 58

This is a lovely chocolate cake- rich, mellow, and with a finer crumb than the Perfect All-American. The flavor of the chocolate and sour cream remind me of a brownie, though the texture is that of a tender cake.

Although the author prefers serving this cake unadorned, I have found that it also pairs wonderfully with nut flavors. The photo shows this cake baked as cupcakes and topped with hazelnut mousseline (mousseline buttercream with white chocolate and hazelnut paste).

This recipe makes 15 cupcakes and they bake in about 20".

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9th September 2011 (edited: 12th September 2012)

Chocolate Fudge Cake : page 60

Among the Cake Bible's chocolate butter cakes, this is my favorite. It has a light, moist texture and works well for cupcakes as well as layer cakes. The brown sugar contributes a more complex and slightly bittersweet flavor, as well as a deep, dark color. The flavors of brown sugar, butter and chocolate remind me a little of chocolate chip cookies, only this is a bit more chocolate-y.

Because of the dark color and the somewhat bittersweet flavor, I like to pair it with sweeter, light-colored buttercreams, such as white chocolate mousseline (pictured in photo).

This recipe makes 28 cupcakes, which bake in 20-25" at 350F.

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31st October 2011 (edited: 1st November 2011)

Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte : page 84

This is a glorious flourless chocolate cake, and it only uses 3 ingredients. Simple and elegant. It really does taste like a chocolate truffle. It's a crowd pleaser and received many compliments.

A Make-Ahead, Sit-Out-All-Night Cake:
I chose this because I could make it a couple of days in advance, and because it could sit out during a party and wouldn't get dry the way a traditional flour- or egg-based cake would. It was still perfectly moist and delicious at the end of the night. However, it is a bit messy to cut if you don't follow the suggestion to use a hot sharp knife.

Chocolate Percentage:
I've made this twice, and used a 53% chocolate one time and 60% the other time. Even though I'm a not-too-sweet person, I found the 60% a little too intense and bitter. I'll stick to 53-57% chocolate for this in the future.

When it's Done:
According to the author, this should bake to an internal temp of 150F, and the water bath should also be about 150F. For me, the water bath worked well when I filled a tea kettle and brought it to a boil while the eggs were beating, then pulled it off the heat and allowed it to cool a bit while I was folding the chocolate/butter mixture and eggs together. Both times I made this, my torte took longer than the specified baking time for the internal temp to come up to 150F.

Hot Fudge Variation:
I also tried the "chocolate torture" variation, with espresso and homemade hot fudge, and have to say that the hot fudge is outstanding and only takes a few minutes to make in the microwave. However, it needs to be quite liquid in order to spread out into a reasonably uniform layer on the cake. Mine was too thick and sunk into the batter in places. Tasted great, but wasn't very pretty.

A second attempt at the hot fudge variation worked well when I used the lukewarm fudge as a topping to pour over the finished, chilled cake. It set up glossy and beautiful at room temp.

The espresso stays in the background and enhances the chocolate, it doesn't come across as a mocha cake.

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1st November 2011

Hot Fudge : page 88

By far the best hot fudge I've ever encountered. It's very easy to make, I do it completely in the microwave in a 4-cup pyrex with buttered sides to prevent boiling over. Keeps well in the refrigerator, and can be re-warmed in the microwave numerous times for desserts and sundaes. I use Lyle's in place of the corn syrup, the substitution works well.

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15th September 2011 (edited: 12th September 2012)

Mousseline Buttercream : page 244

This buttercream is silky smooth, rich and not too sweet, which means I'll never again suffer through gritty or overly sweet powdered sugar frostings. It's bascially whipped butter lightened with Italian Meringue. It is a little more challenging to make than a powdered sugar frosting, but very worthwhile to master.

There is an updated technique on the author's Youtube video, which basically involves dumping all of the cooled meringue onto the whipped butter at once and then whipping at med-high or high speed. This is much faster and simpler than the tablespoon-at-a-time method in the book, and I've done it several times now, it works well.

An important tip is that this buttercream almost always curdles a little bit just before it forms an emulsion- keep beating on med-high or high and as long as it's at the right temperature it will come together. The ideal temperature for both the whipped butter and the cooled meringue is about 70F.

If the temperature of the buttercream is too cool and it curdles, even badly, it can still be saved by bringing the mixture to the correct temp and then beating on high speed.

Another point is to err on the lower side of the 248-250F for the temperature of the cooked sugar syrup. Going over 250F will produce an overly firm, hard-to-pipe and unpleasant-to-eat buttercream. If the sugar syrup does overshoot 250F, it's easy to swirl in a little water (the temp will lower) and then try for 248F again.

Finally, unsalted butter is a must. Salted butter doesn't taste good in this.

My favorite flavors are the lemon curd and the white chocolate. Normally, I don't care for white chocolate at all, but in this buttercream it doesn't come across as too sweet and it does something incredibly dreamy to the texture.

The photos show a cake frosted with lemon curd mousseline, and cupcakes frosted with white chocolate mousseline.

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29th June 2011 (edited: 12th July 2011)

Strawberry Savarin : page 79

This recipe is listed as a variation of La Brioche Cake. It is a strawberry shortcake-style recipe, intended to be served with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, and it is my all-time favorite way to eat strawberries. It is also good with peaches or nectarines.

The "cake" is actually a brioche bread, syruped with liqueur to transform it into a dessert. I don't have good kirsch on hand, so I make the syrup for this with 4T of gold rum, eliminate the lemon juice, and pull back on the sugar a little, to 120 grams. I also like to add the zest of one large orange to the dough during shaping. Brioche gets baked to an internal temp of 190F.

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