Tuesday, March 3, 2009

TWD Chocolate Armagnac Cake



I thank LyB of And Then I Do The Dishes for selecting this week’s recipe. Check her blog for the recipe and be sure to take a look at the TWD blogroll to see how the other bakers fared with this cake. You can find the recipe also on page 279 of Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.
This recipe is not difficult to prepare and has so many flavours coming to our tastebuds !! I love it !!
The changes I made were: using whiskey instead of cognac (we don't drink alcohol other than beer or wine and I didn't want to buy another forgotten bottle) and I used hazelnut's meal instead of pecan's.
Last year I went to a pastry class held by a famous Italian pastry chef called Maurizio Santin and one of the many things I learned from him is to divide the amount of sugar between the yolks and the whites (add after the fist bubbles appear) so that the whites have more structure ; it's really important in this case where the whites do all the work, in fact there are no leavening agents other than them !
As you can see the cake WAS so beautiful in the oven !!!!

26 comments:

Miette said...

So beautiful, Natalia ! I always said : to look at the oven is better and healthier than look at the tv ;-) !

Cheers,

Miette

Marthe said...

I think your cake looks perfect!! I forgot to put the icing on mine, but according to my coworkers it still tastes great!

NKP said...

It looks lovely, Natalia! Thanks for the tip about the sugar in the eggs.

♥Rosie♥ said...

Perfection in cake form Natalia!

Rosie x

Jessica said...

Thanks for the tip about dividing the sugar. I'm making a mental note to remember that in the future. The cake looks lovely and I'm sure that the hazelnut flavor made it taste even better.

Peggy said...

Oh your rose so beautifully in that oven! My cakes do not rise well for some reason. Wasn't this a delicious cake? We loved it.

vibi said...

I'm with you Natalia... easy to make, and soooooo tasty!

Baeutifully done! ...as always!

chocolatechic said...

That is a great thing to know about dividing the sugar.

I will do that next time.

Sihan said...

i didn't know of that technique but I did execute it unknowingly. brilliant! and yesh your cake looks gorgeous in the oven.. must be even more beautiful out of it!

Anonymous said...

What a great tip about separating the sugar between the yolks and whites. Your cake looks gorgeous.

Anonymous said...

ma che bello.... ahmm la quaresima.... che sofferenza... banditi dalla mia vistatutti i post di dolci!!!! ciao V

Cathy said...

This looks just perfect, Natalia! I bet the hazelnut flavor was just fabulous in this!

kimberly salem said...

thanks for the tip about separating the sugar! i'll have to write it down for next time. your cake is so beautiful:)

The Blonde Duck said...

That is a gorgeous cake! It looks like it came from a bakery!

Ivy said...

Beautiful cake Natalia and thanks for the tip about dividing the sugar. I didn't know that either.

BICE said...

Non solo è bellissima,
MA E' ANCHE BUONISSIMA!!!
Io ho avuto il grande piacere di mangiarla!
Grazie Natalia.

Teanna DiMicco said...

Thanks for the tip about the whites and the sugar! Dovrò provare quel prossimo tempo! (Sorry, my Italian is a little rough!)

Anonymous said...

Your cake looks great. Thanks for the tip about dividing the sugar between the yolks and whites!

Ivy said...

I have something for you.

Elyse said...

Your cake looks just gorgeous. I'd love a slice!! Mmm, great flavors, great texture, everything about this cake sounds great.

TeaLady said...

And beautiful on the plate, too. Yummy job.

Shari said...

That's an interesting piece of information about dividing the sugar. Your cake looks wonderful!

AmyRuth said...

What a beautiful cake!?! Wish I had that slice.
Great job
Amyruth

Dewi said...

Natalie dear, this armagnac cake sounds so intriguing. I am loving cake that contain lots of liqueur, my other favorite liqueur is calvados.
The glaze looks very shiny, Delicious..
Cheers,
elra

Dee said...

Ooh, that looks sinful. I'm curious, what exactly do you mean by dividing the amount of sugar between the yolks and the whites?

Nancy/n.o.e said...

Wasn't this cake fabulous? I love the way yours looks, and boy did it do a good job in the oven! I'm making a note in my cookbook about the sugar.
Nancy