Prep Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Ingredients:
- For Cake -
- 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
- 6-1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate, broken in half*
- 9 egg yolks
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 egg whites
- ---
- For Ganache -
- 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, broken in half**
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ---
- For Garnishing -
- 3/4 cup toasted almonds
- Semisweet, White, Milk and/or Bittersweet Chocolate Bars***
- ---
- For Serving -
- 10 ounce bag frozen raspberries, defrosted
- powdered sugar
- cocoa powder
- ---
- * Or use 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon semisweet chocolate chips
- ** Or use 1 -1/3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ***If used bar semisweet chocolate, just use remaining squares.
Preparation:
For ganache - Place chocolate in stainless steel bowl. Heat cream, butter and sugar over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil. Pour over chocolate. Let stand for 5 minutes or so. Whisk until smooth. Remove cake from refrigerator. Use a spatula to spread some ganache on sides of cake. Pour remaining ganache over top of cake. Smooth on top and sides of cake. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Taking a small pointed knife make a few holes in side of cake. Insert almond slices. Continue all around cake until sides are similar to a pinecone.
With a potato peeler, scrape chocolate bars to make chocolate curls. Cover entire cake with curls. Alternating with flavors and/or colors.
For Serving - Process bag of raspberries in food processor. Add 1/2 to 1 cup of powdered sugar to taste. Press puree through sieve to remove seeds. Drizzle some on serving plate. Place cake slice on top. Sprinkle powdered sugar and cocoa powder over all.
