Currently baking out of Sky High, Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynn
I seem to be on a roll here. This is the third cake in a row that I haven’t liked. I’m starting to wonder if it is me or the recipes I’m choosing.
I thought, for sure, that this recipe would be a hit. It’s got chocolate, hazelnuts and whipped cream! Also, it’s one of the simpler recipes in the book. Instead of a separate filling and frosting, this cake uses whipped cream for both.
Alas, the cake tasted extremely bitter and the chocolate flavor was nonexistent. Bryan and I each took a bite and then pushed our plates away. I let the cake sit overnight in the fridge to see if the flavor would improve, but it didn’t.
The cake is made by finely grinding toasted hazelnuts and sugar and mixing that with graham cracker crumbs, grated unsweetened chocolate, eggs, sugar, flour and oil (not necessarily in that order). The cakes baked up beautifully. Once cool, you moisten them with a rum syrup (I don’t like rum, so I used a hazelnut liquor instead). The filling and frosting are simply whipped cream slightly sweetened with powdered sugar.
Besides the cake being bitter and not chocolately at all, my other major gripe about this recipe is that the recipe doesn’t make nearly enough whipped cream. I would have liked a thicker frosting.
I really thought I’d like this cake because I love the hazelnut/chocolate combination. But this cake tasted so bad, it really pissed me off. I hadn’t given much thought to what I could do to improve it. Definitely add more chocolate.
Hmmm…. not chocolatey is not good! Have you thought of, or intend to think of, ways to improve it? Or is it one that’s shelved as not a good choice? I love hazelnuts so I thought this would be yummy. Kind of disappointing!