After the week I have had, and it’s only Tuesday mind you, I am thankful to have something so incredibly chocolatey and decadent to soothe my over-stressed mind and satiate my soul! I couldn’t bring myself to make last Friday’s Coeur à la Crème from the French Fridays with Dorie group. The heart shape and the Valentine’s Day theme just struck a raw nerve with me and I ended up returning the mold I had purchased to make it. Needless to say, I am not a fan of the holiday.
I almost did not make this cake too, as it’s lusciousness and opulence seemed like something only lovers could share on the most special of occasions, an anniversary or birthday dinner, perhaps. But I changed my mind and at the last minute went to find some good quality bittersweet chocolate.
Chocolate really does soothe the soul and this Boca Negra cake fits the bill perfectly! It’s dense and rich and oh, so good! Just what the Doctor ordered and maybe it’s the sugar rush or the bourbon, but one bite is all it takes to put a smile on even the most cynical among us.
I did encounter a few snafus when making this. Firstly, the recipe states that one should boil a mixture of bourbon and sugar and once its boiling to pour it over bits of bittersweet chocolate that you have broken up into a bowl. This part worked fine and the chocolate melted alright, but the next step was to mix in and melt two sticks of butter into this chocolate mixture. This proved nearly impossible as the chocolate had cooled down significantly and the butter just refused to melt. The chocolate was a big glob in the bowl. I ended up putting it over a double boiler and remelting the chocolate just to allow the butter to melt properly. Even after a good whisking, it finally came together only once the eggs were incorporated.
It was a thing of beauty going into the oven, only to emerge 30 minutes later with a center the consistency of jello. While it looked beautiful, had I sliced it then, I felt it would just have fallen into a puddle of chocolate goo onto the plate. So, back into the oven it went for ten more minutes. The end result was a cracked top which had puffed up so high that it needed to settle before I could complete the inversion onto the plate!
Next, because the cake was still quite warm when I was serving it, the creme (a wonderful mixture of heavy cream, bourbon and white chocolate-which tastes just like eggnog!) melted all over the top when I made my pre-photo decorative swirls.
All of that aside, it’s a very fast and easy cake to create….and no matter what it looked like or how far off it veered from what it should be like, it was sinfully delicious!
As with the French Fridays with Dorie group, I can’t reprint the recipe. But you can purchase the book here.
I wish there weren’t so much pressure around Valentine’s Day – it’s enough to make anyone grumpy…
However, your cake came out absolutely beautifully. The melted sauce and the pop of the raspberries were a perfect contrast to the richness of the chocolate, I am sure.
Wow! Spectacular photos!! Your cake looks absolutely perfect. This is one not to be missed I think. Good that you went ahead and made it – it is soul soothing!
Your cake looks incredible!! So glad you decided to make it. Fantastic pics! It really was a good cake. I was so pleased that it turned out so well. I used a food processor for the recipe and glad I did, as the chocolate did cool fast and the food processor made it a breeze.
I’ll look at the recipe later – it’s the fork that jumped out at me from the picture. My grandparents-in-law had the silverplate pattern and passed it along to me years ago!
Ari’s grandmother willed us this set and I have been filling it in for a few years now. Ironically, we got this exact pattern for a dessert set for a wedding gift. I guess it’s pretty popular! Love it. The old sterling is heavy and large, the silver plate is nice too, but you can tell the difference.
Your cake looks totally luscious; despite your small snafus!!