I am still on a cloud from the successful completion of my dear friend’s wedding cake and a fabulous weekend in a redwood forest mountain retreat. I wrote a post on my site about the experience, so go there for all the pictures, but I had to share here as well.

While I normally use RLB recipes for wedding cakes, we had a tasting a couple months back and the couple selected my favorite chocolate cake recipe with sour cream and coffee (full disclosure: I have not tried every RLB chocolate cake recipe, and I know I need to try the domingo!) with slightly different fillings and a moist yellow cake for the middle. The whole thing was covered in ganache undercoat and dark chocolate lacquer glaze as per the Deep Chocolate Passion wedding cake in Rose’s Heavenly Cakes. 

I have been so excited to use this glaze and it came out just as beautifully as I had seen and imagined. It is very, very easy….almost foolproof actually, as long as you have an accurate thermometer and follow the recommended temperature range for the glaze. (I noticed that for the Bomba and other recipes using the glaze, different temperatures are recommended.)

I re-heated my glaze from chilled, and it took over 20 minutes in a double boiler. Do not be discouraged by the seemingly immovable iceberg of glaze - it will reheat and pour perfectly.

Thank you to everyone as usual for your support. (Especially Hector!)

oh my dear, thank you, it is fabulous.  the shine stands out, and love your ok picture!

A beautiful glaze and I love the autumn/fall theme of the decoration!

Wow, I love the OK picture, too!  Shines like a mirror.  Beautiful cake, lovely job!

Absolutely beautiful!

I’ve looked at your blog, and the picture is so clear, you can be seen taking the picture, which is reflected in the glaze!  Fantastic!!!!

That is a lovely and elegant cake.  Less is more and your cake just highlights the glaze beautifully.  Congratulations on a job well done!

Jess

Beautiful cake Rachel! The glaze is so shiny, just perfect.

Thank you so much everyone!!  I only wish I had more time with the book to test the amazing chocolate cake recipe Rose perfected for the the Deep Chocolate Passion Cake (also the german chocolate cake base), for this project. I thought about substituting it at the last minute, but decided I would go with a cake I had made over and over again, especially since I was attempting a new technique already with the glaze.

I also am very glad I tried the golden neoclassic buttercream from Heavenly Cakes. I had Lyle’s Golden Syrup on hand and it was a wonderful mellow flavor, really unlike any frosting I have had. I used the classic raspberry puree and sauce recipe to flavor the buttercream for a filling (for the yellow middle tier) and to sauce the plates of both types of cake.

The one change I made to the raspberry puree was to suit the theme of the recepetion - pine cones and pomegranates - and I reduced pomegranate juice instead of the raspberry juice after straining/thawing the frozen raspberries. Then I blended the pom juice with the strained raspberry pulp. It was delicious - a bit more tannic/tart/complex. I also added about 1/3 cup of homemade jam from my satsuma plum tree (they are a brilliant ruby color with a tart, complex flavor, in the same family as santa rosa plums)

Soooo fantastically gorgeous, Rachel!  I am waiting for the perfect opportunity to make the glaze—Christmas, maybe??—regardless, you’ve got me all the more motivated to try it.  I must say the German Chocolate Cake base is a dream—I baked only one test cake with it before using it in my sister-in-law’s wedding cake and they all turned out wonderfully.  But…I don’t think it would have the tang that a sour cream chocolate cake would, so if you had based your components on that, then sticking with it is a good idea.  Do try it sometime, you will not be disappointed!  I must check out the blog now!

Thanks, Sherrie! I think you are right about sticking with the flavors and textures of the components I had presented in the first place, but I definitely need to make the german chocolate cake. Well, there will be many opportunities.
I think my next item with the glaze will be the baby grands.
I play piano and the name (and likeness to a piano) has suckered me in.

Also another thing I thought about is that I am not a huge fan of fondant covered cakes for eating, but many of them look so smooth and gorgeous, like Wendy Kromer’s creations for the Martha Stewart Wedding Cakes book, and this glaze achieves a pristine smooth surface while still being delicious to eat. While it won’t keep a cake fresh like fondant or marzipan will, it does achieve the visual WOW. I think my speciality might have to be chocolate covered cakes. 

I do NOT want my specialty to be delivering wedding cakes though.

Lovely cake Rachel. So very pretty.

I love the reflection - perfection!

Look at that shine!

Anybody else a fan of the short-lived TV show “Firefly?” In the future world of that show, everyone uses “Shiny!” to mean “great, terrific, wow!” Now that I’ve seen that picture I know exactly how that usage must have started—with this glaze!

Beautiful, beautiful cake, Rachel.  You must feel so proud to have produced such a work of art.  Do you have a picture of a slice?