Tennis Anyone?

Remember I mentioned going to have a look at some kittens last week?

Well, I am now the owner of Stewie, who looks just like those kittens in the video. Very cute and very friendly.

It has been a good month so far. Not just a new kitten, but I made this incredible cake.

Chocolate Cake With Salted Caramel And Fleur de Sel Praline.

Just looking at those words melts my heart.

You already know I dig the salted caramel thing, so if you do, too, make this cake.

Totally dramatic and outrageous with deep chocolate cake layers sandwiched with dark chocolate ganache, the salted caramel and bits of salted praline. It gets an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Chocolate Cake With Salted Caramel And Fleur de Sel Praline

Ingredients:

Chocolate Cake (recipe follows)
Caramel Filling (recipe follows)
Chocolate Ganache (recipe follows)
Fleur de Sel Praline (recipe follows)

Directions:

1. Place one layer of the cake on a serving plate.

2. Spread this layer with 1/2 cup room-temperature ganache. It needs to be very soft in order to be able to ice the cake without tearing it.

3. Spoon some ganache into pastry bag fitted with 1/4-inch plain round tip. Pipe ring of ganache around edge of layer (I just used a spoon to do this…not as neat, but you don’t notice when the cake is fully iced).

4. Spread 1/2 cup of the caramel filling evenly inside the center of the ganache ring. Sprinkle the caramel with about 2 Tbs of the crushed Fleur de Sel Praline.

5. Top with second cake layer and repeat steps 3 and 4.

6. Top with third cake layer. Spread remaining ganache over top and sides of cake.

7. Once the cake is iced it can be refrigerated for one day.

8. Just before serving, top the cake with the large pieces of praline and garnish with the crushed praline.

Note: Once the praline is refrigerated, it will attract moisture and become sticky and start to ooze, so garnish after the cake is removed from the refrigerator.

Serves at least 12.

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp Fleur de Sel
1 cup milk
2 large eggs
4 oz unsalted butter, melted
1.5 Tbs instant espresso powder
1 cup hot water
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Butter three 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 2-inch-high sides. Line bottom of each pan with parchment paper. Butter paper and dust pan with flour.

3. Sift sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into large bowl. Add milk, eggs, and melted butter. Using electric mixer, beat at low speed until blended. Increase speed and beat 2 minutes. The batter will be very thick.

4. Dissolve espresso powder in 1 cup hot water. Add the dissolved coffee and the vanilla to the batter and beat until blended.

5. Divide batter between the pans. Bake cakes about 30-35 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans on racks for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the pan and then turn the cakes out onto racks. Remove the parchment paper and allow the cakes to cool completely.

Caramel Filling

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 oz unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Large pinch of fine fleur de sel

Directions:

1. Stir sugar and water together in a deep medium saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolves.

2. Increase heat to medium. Boil without stirring until syrup is deep amber, occasionally brushing down pan sides with wet pastry brush, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat. (Watch carefully. Don’t walk away. The minute the caramel starts to get to that deep color you want to take it off the heat so you don’t end up with a bitter, too dark caramel. It might take less than 6 minutes.)

3. Add cream (The mixture will bubble up and may solidify, just keep stirring).

4. Whisk in butter, sour cream, lemon juice, and the fleur de sel.

5. Cool completely.

Makes about 1 1/2 cups caramel (I used 1/2 cup between each layer and used the leftover caramel, warmed up, over ice cream)

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3 cups heavy whipping cream

Directions:

1. Place chocolate in large bowl.

2. Bring cream to simmer in heavy bottomed pot. (or heat it in the microwave in a measuring cup until very hot)

3. Pour the cream over the chocolate and allow it to soften about 1 minute. Whisk until the chocolate is smooth. Cool.

Fleur de Sel Praline

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1.5 teaspoons Fleur de Sel plus an extra pinch for garnish (Measure out the salt in advance into a small bowl so you don’t have to do it in the moment. You will need to work quickly.)

Directions:

1. Pour sugar into a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat. In approximately one minute or so, the sugar will begin to melt.

2. Watch sugar carefully and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until all the sugar dissolves and starts to turn
color. The sugar will darken in color and may begin to smoke. Try to get it off the heat right before this happens. It will be a deep amber color.

3. As soon as pan is off heat, stir in the salt and immediately pour mixture onto a greased baking sheet or silicone baking mat.

4. Tilt the pan to spread the praline mixture. Try to get it as thin as possible. (The praline will harden very quickly as it cools.)

5. While still hot, sprinkle the praline with a little extra fleur de sel (for texture and garnish).

6. Once cool, it might be possible to remove the praline in one piece, especially if it’s been poured onto a silicone mat. It should peel off easily.

7. Transfer praline to a large cutting board. Gently tap the praline with the back of a knife and it should break into pieces. (Be careful…those shards are sharp!)

8. Break the praline into large pieces for the top of the cake.

9. Use about 1/3 of the praline pieces to crush into smaller bits to be used in filling the cake. (Do this in a mortar and pestle or place in a sealed plastic bag and hit gently with a rolling pin until crushed)

All recipes from Former Chef

Disjointed rhythm, exciting arrangement, intriguing lyrics, kind of epic. I really like this song.

The double a-side single ‘I Am Certain’/’I Do Not Believe’ will be out November 19th through Too Pure Singles club.

Check out Cardiff band Among Brothers on Facebook and thier Website. You can buy the music on Bandcamp.

Cheers!