This week's TWD was chosen by Lyb of And then I do the dishes: chocolate armagnac cake! When I've flipped through the book, this cake has always caught my eye but more for the backstory than the recipe itself. Dorie affectionately refers to this cake as the cake that got her fired. At her first job in a professional kitchen, she got bored with making the same old cake everyday (chocolate whiskey-raisin cakes) so she decided to substitute prunes soaked in Armagnac for the whisky raisins. Needless to say, the owner fired her....a move I'm sure she regrets now :)
I decided to scale the recipe down and make the cake in my 4 inch springform pan. We've had so many sweets around here lately between Valentine's Day candy and my birthday that I couldn't imagine another full-sized chocolate cake in the house! The recipe for this cake is fairly simple, though it does make a ton of dirty dishes! It actually reminded me of making brownies, but with a few extra steps. I went with the original recipe (raisins soaked in scotch) for my cake, but more because it's what I had on hand and not because I was opposed to using prunes.
We tried the cake after dinner tonight and I really expected to like it. I mean, what's not to like about chocolate cake? Unfortunately, Dorie and I just haven't been on the same page these past few weeks. I didn't love this cake. It was just ok for me. It was a bit too rich and I really didn't like the glaze. I think I'll just have to stick with brownies instead!
Many thanks to Lyb for her choice this week. You can find the recipe for the cake on her blog and, as always, you can see how the rest of the TWD bakers' cakes turned out by checking out the TWD blogroll!
18 comments:
Too bad you didn't like it. Your cake looks wonderful. Maybe you will like next week's selection...
sorry to hear that this wasn't to your liking...i feel like we've been in chocolate overload, so looking forward to next week's recipe! ;)
sorry you didn't like it :( i thought it was tasty, but for me, the richer the better!
I went the scotch route as well. I used powdered sugar instead of glaze. Sorry you didn't like it better.
sorry to hear that you didn't like the cake ... but still looks great !! well done
I suspected the glaze wouldn't appeal to me so I changed it. Sorry the cake wasn't more enjoyable for you.
It sure does look scrumptious! Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy it.
Your little four inch cake is so cute! Sorry you didn't like it. I thought it was quite delicious, but I can see it wouldn't be to everyone's taste.
So sad you didn't like it. I expected NOT to like it and did..Next time.
Sorry you weren't crazy about it, but it does look great :) Hopefully the next recipe will be better!
Well, it looks pretty. I was also amazed at how many dishes I had to dirty, but I liked the cake.
Oh, I'm sorry you didn't like it. We really enjoyed it and I was sure I wouldn't. Those mozzarella pillows look wonderful, too!
Oh, Tracey. That looks sooooo good.
I sometimes go through a period where I'm not in sync with Dorie... it always passes though. Hopefully the coming weeks will get better!
Your cake looks fabulous, even if you didn't like it very much. Yay for fruit desserts the next few weeks!
Wow...your cake looks amazing, and the frosting is beautiful. It looks like something from a bakery window! I like scaling down recipes, too, but with two 16 year olds and a husband who loves desserts (and is thin!), I have no trouble getting rid of the full size versions around here...add into that the number of teens that seem to be always hanging about, and some weeks I end up making two! Yours looks very lovely.
sorry you were less than thrilled w/this cake. at least you gave it a try
This cake totally reminds me of brownies. Your cake looks fantastic, too bad you didn't like it much. Still, thanks for baking along with me! :)
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