lostbaker

So I went through this entire thread.. Couldn't figure out which one is the favorite. It seems everyone really like Fine Cooking's, but found it too runny. Which one would you recommend?

I know this thread is 6 years old, but is there anyway I can see those pictures?? I'd love to see them!!

Paulraphael - I would love to get your recipe. I agree that I don't like the sudden transition between baked and liquid. A gradual progress would be better, though considering my skills as a baker, I'd say I'm trying to over-achieve. LucyinAust - Great looking recipe, hats off to your baking considering you said you make it. Its looks wayy too complicated for a novice like me. Maybe someday, I hope I'll be able to make it. Djyee100 - Thanks for the link, I wish I'd seen it sooner. That looks like something I could do. Prasantrin - I did see the link, and it was very helpful in explaining how to do the ganache centres :-) And this just may be me, since I tend to judge recipes on the pictures, but to be frank, I just didn't like the way it seemed like a hole out of which the melted ganache was flowing out. It just wasn't what I wanted, or what my mom would like. Thanks anyway. ETA reviews on the recipe by Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mark Bittman. It tasted amazingly good. Everyone loved it. Thanks Chris :-)

Thanks for the reply Chris. Since I was in a hurry, I searched online, and made Jean-Georges Vongerichten's recipe. I was so happy to see that you recommended the same recipe. It turned out great, my first time making this was a success :-) Thanks for the help. And next time, I want to try the frozen ganache method, so thanks Lisa. I learned both ways thanks to you both. I'm thinking of using caramel chocolate ganache, with my go-to chocolate cake recipe. It should be great :-) Lostbaker ETA : I just thought I'd click on the link Chris gave, and it turns out I used the same site too :-)

Could you point me to any recipe I should try? Its my first time making this, and I really don't have time to try various recipes, and fail. Ideally, I'd like to make it so they can eat it in about an hour from now .

I'm a little confused, so prasantrin or anyone else, please help :-( Would I be using the same recipes as for other molten chocolate cakes, or would I use any normal cupcake recipe and just put in the ganache center? Please help :-(

Oh I never thought of using ganache as the center. What a great idea :-) I'm gonna go look for some recipes, then use ganache, instead. Thanks prasantrin.

Its my mom's birthday tomorrow, so I thought of making individual chocolate lava cakes for everyone. [she loves them :-)] But all the recipes I found consisted of under-baking the cake, so you can get a gooey center of uncooked batter. Now don't get me wrong, I love that, I can eat entire batches of uncooked brownie batter, but I just thought that the lava center should be pure chocolate. Anyone have a good recipe, or a way to make them so I could achieve that? Thanks, lostbaker

WOWW!! I still can't believe those are cakes. At first, I just passed over them thinking they were some random pictures of trees and stuff. :P It wasn't until Lisa replied that I realised :$ Great job dystopiandreamgirl! One of the best creations I have seen, by far. Makes me feel so embarrassed to upload mine.

Tomatom, I'd love to help you on any questions you have about Mumbai specifically, so ask away.

Hmmm... I found it somewhere upthread, but can't be bothered to look back through the pages. So I'm copying from my file - Chocolate caramel ganache [Pierre Hermes] 6 ½ ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped 4 ½ ounces milk chocolate, finely chopped combine chocolate in a heat proof bowl and set aside 2/3 cup granulated sugar 1 ½ tbsp salted butter 1 cup plus 2 tbsp whipping cream 1 ½ cups unsalted butter(3 sticks) Put one third of sugar in the bottom of heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat. When it starts to melt, stir with wooden spoon. Once completely melted, add another third of the sugar. Once that is melted, add the last third of sugar. Cook till amber color reached(be careful it does not burn). Add butter-careful it will foam up. Once butter is combined, add the cream. Bring the cream to a boil. Pour half of this over the chocolate and stir until smooth(the small the chocolate is chopped, the faster it will combine). Once smooth, add the rest of the cream and stir until smooth. While the chocolate mixture cools, take the room temperature butter and with either the mixer on low speed(paddle) or with a rubber spoon, soften until it looks like mayonnaise. Do this slowly-you do not want a lot of air in the butter. It should take about 10 minutes. Gently stir the butter into the chocolate with a rubber spatula-you don’t want a lot of air bubbles. Stir until the mixture is smooth-this can take a little while. Let sit for an hour or so, stirring occasionally until spreadable consistency. The longer it sits, the thicker it gets. I was able to pipe borders with it once it had cooled enough. It's great. You must try it! :-) Thanks to whoever posted it.

Hahaha, luckily I've got a lot of dessert loving people around me. Though I don't think anyone can beat me, I have to watch what I eat :-( And what I do now is make the ganache for the filling when the cake's in the oven itself, pop it into the fridge, and make the other one way later. That way they are both perfect consistency. I pour, it's just so easy, and I haven't really perfected my spatula skills. I make this spiderweb thing on top, and it looks so professional. Go me! Yayy for the internet. I've learnt every single baking skill from it!

Thanks for the prompt reply. :-) So what you're saying is anything will do, thick or thin, poured or put on with a spatula, right? That's great, and I also saw this very informative video, if anyone like me needs some help. http://daisylanecakes.blogspot.com/2008/07...th-ganache.html

I'm really really new to baking, so please don't laugh :$ What thickness of ganache is ideal? Should it be poured or put on with a spatula? I'm leaning towards poured, I even tried doing that, but I couldn't do the edges well. Parts of it got coated completely and perfectly, but some parts just had a sort of drizzle. Can someone please explain? Thanks. I hope this is in the right section.

I know I'm coming into this real late, but this is for others like me who may read this and want a good review. Based on everyone's posts, I took the Woolley cake and the Epicurious cake as the best rated and tried them out. As someone upthread did, I too stacked the Woolley on top on the Epicurious, filled with white chocolate ganache, and topped with Caramel Chocolate Ganache. Woolley cake, though good taste-wise, was very crumbly, and really difficult to handle. On the other hand, the Double Chocolate handled really well, and even had a better taste. It was moist and tight. Oh, and everyone was raving about the caramel chocolate ganache. It was spectacular :-) I'll definately be making the Epicurious cake again, though I may add a little more chocolate. This may be a matter of personal taste, but I like my cakes to be really rich. There were many [or most] that loved it as is! Epicurious - 4.5/5 Woolley 3/5 CC ganache 10/5

Came out of my lurkdom specially for this. Has there been any consensus on the best brownie yet? I'm one that likes fudgy and rich and dense over cakey. Any recommendations? I started baking[pretty recently] with brownies, so they will always have a soft spot. Thanks to all that respond! :-) HAPPY BAKING!