Racines Cake
Rich and decadent, this chocolate cake deserves all of the adjectives one usually associates with cake but then it needs a few extras: Eye rolling-melt-in-your-mouth-nearly-orgasmic-chocolate-bliss.
I barely managed to snap a picture of this cake before it was gone. I was slicing and my friend Katie was drizzling a pool of Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce on the side of each plate and placing a dollop of lightly sweetened fresh Whipped Cream next to it when I realized if I was going to get a picture it had to be now. I glanced at our two families to see if anyone's cake wasn't touched yet because the slices did look so nice next the sauce and whipped cream but that end of the table looked like chocolate carnage. I settled for quick picture of the cake platter, tossed the camera aside and took my first bite.....and didn't think again about pictures until this morning. Ah, well. That's why I'll never be a food photographer.
A couple of weeks ago, you might remember me gushing mentioning David Lebovitz. If you don't, you can find my creepy behavior (do you see it's continuing here? shameful!) at Chocolate Lava Cakes. I got his new cookbook Ready for Dessert recently and I've really been enjoying it.
The Racines Cake is from this book and the Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce. Do make the latter the day before like he advises because it is even better that day but eat the Racines cake the day you make it. Though, three of us did split the tiny slice that remained the next day and it was still very, very good.
The Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce makes a fair amount of sauce that you can keep in the fridge for at least several days but I think it's better to find other uses for it. Like the Caramel Ice Cream recipe. The bittersweet sauce is the perfect counterpart to the sweet caramel.
Ready for Dessert is not a beginner's cookbook in my opinion unless you a very ambitious and fearless beginner. Confidence in the kitchen is something that will do you well as you make your way through these recipes because they can seem difficult at first when you page through the book. That little bit of confidence will help you to see that while upon first glance the recipes seem difficult that they are not as complicated as they seem. The recipes often have multiple steps--no dumping everything in one bowl all in one go!--but they are very well written and easy to understand and follow and have additional details for techniques that might be worrisome to some. For example, in the back of the cookbook, there is a clear, concise (and picture loaded) section that discusses caramelizing sugar. I propped this section open as I was caramelizing the sugar for the Caramel Ice Cream and everything proceeded exactly as described.
One thing to keep in mind is that this book is ' Ready for Dessert---My Best Recipes.' Emphasis on the desserts. These recipes make wonderful desserts whether you are entertaining or they are just something special for yourself but I don't think they would be useful for something like a 6 year old's birthday party. Unless of course, that six year old and all of his friends have exquisite taste!
P.S. Dear Mr. Lebovitz--Thank you so much for going back to fetch the recipe for the Racines Cake. I would have done the exact same thing.
