Two Desserts

Here is a pic of the crepe cake that I made a couple days ago. It wasn't that difficult but it is time-consuming because you have to make all those crepes. The key to success here is to have patience and let everything cool before assembling. There is pastry cream and chocolate ganache between the crepe layers. I should have let them chill before pouring the chocolate ganache over the top but was too impatient. So, the whole pile of crepes slid around to form a mound instead of a stack (not attractive - picture a brown, oozing mound of goo). That is why I had to cut a piece in order to get an appetizing picture. Also, I put the berries on the top because I didn't let the ganache cool enough before wrapping in plastic wrap so the top of the "cake" stuck to the plastic. See - I told you this requires patience - a quality I am obviously lacking!. Anyway, it tastes delicious - kind of like an eclair but with a different texture. I got the recipes for the different components (crepes, pastry cream, chocolate ganache) from my trust copy of How to Cook Everything but you could easily find recipes online.

The dessert pictured above is really just a way to use up leftover cake. I know - who has leftover cake? Well, I needed to make cupcakes for work and ended up with just enough extra batter for one small layer of chocolate cake. I hate to let good cake go to waste so later that week I cut out shapes using cookie cutters (since it was a short layer, that worked well). I made a quick sauce by heating frozen raspberries with some sugar then poked some holes in the cake (using a chopstick) and poured the sauce over to give the cake a little more moisture. This one is topped with a dollop of chocolate buttercream frosting but obviously whipped cream would work just as well.