Dessert Cakes!

The office birthday cake for August was more of a dessert cake than a "decorated" cake - at least in my opinion.  The doctor whose birthday it was requested something different - a less sugary cake, more like the kind they make in Europe.  With that thought in mind, I researched cake recipes and came up with a pound like vanilla cake from Debbie Brown.  That thing used 7 eggs and hardly any sugar! 

Once that finished baking up, I turned to a new book that I got from Nicholas Lodge - International Sugar Crafting which has 24 lessons in all - dealing with chocolate tempering, marzipan figures and much, much more.  The first lesson in the book was the jackpot for me.  I had found the perfect cake that fit the birthday boy's request.

The nice thing about this cake is that it has a "wow" factor.  It just presents so nicely with the white frosting, dark chocolate and the red strawberries.

I tempered the chocolate and poured it out on to wax paper.  It took almost a full 24 hours to fully set before I was able to cut the triangles.  I also discovered - hot hands is NOT good when working with chocolate!  Once I cut the triangles, I put half of them aside to cover in powdered sugar.  The left over chocolate slab - for lack of a better term - I chopped up to put along the base of the cake.

The cake itself was a vanilla pound cake, which as mentioned earlier, was very dense.  I was actually disappointed with the way it turned out.  The flavor was good, but it was a bit dry.  Maybe I have been spoiled with "American" cakes, but I really like my cakes a bit moister.  The cake was torted and filled with a cooked meringue and fresh chopped strawberries.

From there - more meringue on the outside of the cake, apply the chopped chocolate and position the triangles, alternating with whole strawberries and powdered triangles. 

Oh!  And a shameless plug for my friend Denise - a wonderful glass artist who made my beautiful cake plate!  It set off the cake to perfection!