Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Chocolate Armagnac Cake -- Tuesdays with Dorie


(Chocolate Scotch Whiskey Cake or Prune and Whiskey Cake seem more appropriate)

Hello TWD friends! I have been doing some last minute (aka Monday night) baking of Dorie's Chocolate Armagnac Cake, picked by Lyb of And then I do the dishes. We had a crazy weekend, getting ready for a birthday, and my littlest one not feeling well :( I haven't had a chance to make the frosting/glaze yet and will do that Tuesday morning, nothing wrong with cake for breakfast, right? Just kidding...kind of. Hey, it does have prunes and pecans, right? Anyway I subbed the Armagnac for Scotch Whiskey (which was a suggested substitute and for me it was a toss up between that and brandy since that's all our little home liquor cabinet had) I actually looked at some Armagnac online (the crooked neck bottle looked fun) when this recipe was announced, but they wouldn't ship to our state and of course no one around here sells anything that fancy... so prunes and whiskey, hmm.



As for baking, I added an extra 5 minutes, so 37 total, and here is my 'streaky knife' shot...




a few cake shots -- and a couple of shots of my prunes flambe...





Just wanted to set this up for auto posting at midnight for all of you early morning (or night owl) TWD readers...promise to update Tuesday mid morning!


Update: As you can see by the pictures I finally was able to finish this cake! If I were to pick one word to describe it, it would have to be "fudgey." Is that even a word? No? Oh-well, you know what I mean. I think my favorite part of this cake would have to be the extra moist crumb with the hint of crunch from the pecans. The prunes were perfect in this, unlike most people I am not a prune hater, I actually like them, but we rarely buy them so it was nice to be able to see them in a new light with this cake. I do not think the alcohol was overpowering at all in this (I am not a big alcohol fan) but it did add a nice depth. Maybe because I let it sit overnight the flavors had a chance to mellow. I don't think I could have frosted the cake like the photo in the book unless I were to double the glaze, but maybe that was just me. I really enjoyed trying this cake, what an amazingly rich, impressive dessert.

15 comments:

Megan said...

So far, so good. I'm sure it will be delightful tomorrow morning.

NKP said...

Love the flaming prune shot! Have a great TWD breakfast tomorrow, hope the babe is doing better.

Anonymous said...

How cool that you got an action shot of the flames. Chocolate cake is always good for breakfast.

Jennifer said...

Beautiful job! Love that you caught a shot of the flambe'!

Maria said...

Great photos and cake!

doughmesstic said...

Fudge-y is exactly right. Nice job!

chocolatechic said...

Love your flambe.

I was so disappointed when mine didn't burn.

Kimberly Johnson said...

That's a heck of a flambe you have going on there! Your cake looks fabulous!

Flourchild said...

Nice flame! Im glad you liked the cake, you did a great job!

Molly Loves Paris said...

How do you manage to get the cake cooked with three little ones. My one little one SO wanted to help, but she was driving me crazy. I thought my flame was never going to go out. The cake looks lovely.

Linda said...

Love that you captured the flambeed fruit!

Teanna DiMicco said...

WOAH! Look at those flames! Nice job!

Flourchild said...

Thank you for your kind words and concern ..my MIL is doing good right now. I just made the custard..interesting, but Im pleased with the way it turned out. I did do somethings different..come see Tuesday!

TeaLady said...

Oh, look at all that moist fudgey goodness. Great job.

Pamela said...

Nice shot of the flaming prunes!

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