Desiderio

http://www.chocolatform.com/index.php?pag=products&pid=42 I send an email to this company to see their prices,I am going back to Italy at the end of October so I was thinking to buy some molds while I am there since they are cheaper cause most of them come from there . Did any of you ever seen this type of mold around here in the States by chance? I was looking for them for a bit and wondering why I never seen them around in the regular sites. ( btw I think Mette uses them for her beautifull chocolates in a recent post ) Thank you

Uh Oh I totally agree on that one ."Pink celery"

On the previous thread about Italian cream cake , I was a bit confused , because I dont recall an italian cake like that ( somethign about coconut )or anything that would be famous under that name and descriptio,so I am guessing like Franci said this must be an american italian cake that italian never heard of .

I have a gas oven and that method really dont work with my oven , also , he uses the top shelf /broiler because most of the italian oven dont go to high , american oven are higher in general.

there is the first pizza I made with Adriano recipe on Gennarino. Grazie Adriano !!

Ahh Kerry what a great idea , I am thrilled to follow this thread/challenge . FOr the pineapple cake , in my family we use to make it with walnuts not cherry , actually I had no idea was with cherry,until i came here in the US, ( maybe in Italy is with walnuts ), and I havent made that cake in ages , but its good ,another idea I got from Ling mentioning the pineapple mint combo, my mom used to make a dessert with pineapples and a mint pastry cream in the middle , oh ggodness was soo good , why we always forget the simple things?? I am looking foward to see the evolution of this challenge

Franci I totally agree with you , I did this recipe from Gennarino few weeks ago and it was great , the closest I ever get to the italian pizza ( I did roll the pizza dough little bit thinner cause I am from Rome and I like my pizza thin ), but the dough is very nice to work with ,I will post the pics when I get back home. Definately its a keeper .

Ohh Yummmm!! Honey and Apples??Thank you for posting the recipe Pam

Michelle the cupcake looks great, moist and chcolatey , thank you for posting the pic ad the tips

No No , you are not a sad case , my husband call my sourdough starters ,the "sour babies", because they are my little babies I have to attend and yes I would to try to revive my sourdough as well,"never give up never surrender". And here I would like to ask the experts, the fact that Glenn sourdough lost strenght could be because his starter was made of grapes?( where they grapes or apples??) Apples I think .I have seen some of the experts here saying that the better starters are from flour and water and nothing else , because the fruit or whatever else you feed it it wont last too long etc?Is that possible ? Thank you , just for info I was actually thinking about this matter not long ago.

Also, the leftover slices (if there are any), freeze beautifully. ← Ahh yes I have like 3 cakes in the freezer hihihi!Wel only one of them is the good one unfortunally

Michelle , thats good news then ,I think later on I will try redoing this cake with your suggestions .I have to resay that the chocolate sour cream cake is soo good and stays moist and chocolatey even right out of the fridge .

I use a natural maple extract I buy in a natural grocery store, to enahnce the flavor of maple.Is alchool free as well ( frontier I believe is the brand ).

I use Eguittard and I never had problem form making ganache with it (the button size right?). I chop the 5 kilos bars with a big ( not too big ) serrated knife that isnt too ragged etc and it works very fast I usually chop more and just bag the rest in zipplock. Another this is that you can actually use the melted button to make ganache , is another method used , just melt and add to the cream or whatever.

Ok definately the chocolate sour cream is a winner.texture is great fine not very crumbly, and very nice taste.I think its a keeper ( ohh finally )

Thank you for sharing you experience Sky,I am puzzled as well with the double chocolate cake .I am about to taste the chocolate sour cream one ( CI one ).keep my finger cross .

Ok I think this might be the last chocolate cake for this week ( gotta make a ton of chocolates for next 2 weeks ), the chocolate sour cream cake ( not in a bundt cause I dont have one and dont feel like buying anymore stuff atm )is in the oven , and I am really hoping to see some good results.I was very disappointed in the double chocolate cake , it turned very dry crumbly and taste is quite bland for my taste.I think until now the best , taste /texture wise was the fudge brownie cake ( wooley ),so if this doesnt turn the way I am expecting I am going to try that again with a few tweking .Will see

Ahh kerry , what to say ,Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and to take the time on doing so.I almost miss the classes because I always goo directly to the baking forum and I forget to look on the main page Oh well .

This is the one I baked this morning,the egullet version of the double chocolate cake. The one I cut for tasting , baked in a 9 inch about 1 1/2 deep ( maybe less ). This is the same baked in a 10 inch ( I believe ) 2 inch deep . Ok I have been reading about high altitude etc, and I am starting to understand some little things . Any way this one I baked last has a better crumb and texture than the second one , its a little bit on the dry side and that might have to do with altitude as well ,the taste is very chocolatey but has something into it that I cant well percieve ,some taste I am not too convinced about .Another thing I really liked the first one I baked (Wooley) if it wasnt for all the crumbly factor and I did taste and smell the baking soda on that one , maybe because I used a dry buttermilk and didnt activated the BS well, I liked the taste and the moistness, and I start to think that it might be the method so the creamy method instead of the foaming one , it is possible that it gives a more moist cake?Next one the chocolate sour cream cake in fact uses the creamy method and for what I have read everyone said is very moist and the texture is perfect right? SO will se if I can get the taste of the fudge one with a nice texture that would be great .keep you posted. Good baking

I haven't tried the CI cake, but I have a great recipe from Chocolatier -"Devil's Food Cake With Fluffy White Frosting." I've made this countless times and it's superb. I omit the white frosting, increase the chocolate ganache filling, and use it for both the filling and frosting. Also, I use brewed espresso instead of strong coffee. *Caution: Although the recipe says to merely butter and flour the pans, make sure you use parchment paper (buttered and dusted, preferably with cocoa powder). The cakes are so moist, they stick to the pans like glue! (I found this out the hard way) (Desiderio, don't look at this recipe or you'll have to try it! LOL) http://www.godiva.com/recipes/recipe.aspx?id=518 ← Ahh I am going mad!!!! ,Actually I was contemplating a devil's food cake the one on the CI book , cause reading all the explanation it might sounds like that will be my type of cake , but the chocolate sour cream bundt cake will come first .I am thinking to host a nice , all ladys night , and make them all eat bunch of different chocolate cakes

Brilliant!! thank you again for all your help

Thank you much Thats next then , if I make one more chocolate cake my husband is going to send me to a mental house Ok I subscribed and found the recipe Thank you Merstar

Thank you Merstar, I actually had a list of all the cake to try and that one was next , I need to get the recipe actually , I have the CI best recipe and it says sour cream fudge layer cake , wich I think isnt the same as this one you are talking about , need to go and subcribe , unless someone has the recipe maybe can pm to me if they can please? I did another attempt tweaking for high altitude ( for what I think I am still puzzeled by it sometimes ) , so I wil post the results with the tweaking if works. Thank you

Ok then maybe I will try the update version of the DCC and use some tweaking for high altitude perhaps.Thank you

Ann , I used something like that , I only make the caramel my self instead of using the caramels store bought ( but it would save you time ),and you can omit the almond use peanuts or just plain, the main thing is the nougat then you do whater you like with it . http://dessert.allrecipes.com/AZ/MrslmndBrs.asp