Posts by Friday Baking Project

When I opened my Martha’s Vineyard baking business in 1982, the first restaurant client requested, among other desserts, a cheesecake. I tested a few recipes to no great enthusiasm, until I came upon one in Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Desserts, which itself was adapted from a Craig Claiborne recipe published in the New York…

It’s appropriate that we end this tour through the world of French-style chocolate cakes with a version of Julia Child’s Reine de Saba from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1. Published in 1961, this may be the earliest American cookbook recipe for this type of rich, slightly underdone, single-layer g¢teau. Many recipes that…

The first two entries in the great French-style chocolate cake search, G¢teau au Chocolat and Bête Noire, are room temperature cakes, best eaten within several hours of baking. For this week, we test a cake that is served cold, with either an adornment of whipped cream on top, or plain with the whipped cream in…

For the month of May, we will be exploring French-style chocolate cakes. By this I am referring to single-layer, rich, moist, intensely chocolate cakes. The type that might require a simple chocolate glaze, or just a light dusting of powdered sugar. The type that is sliced into small pieces, and served with barely sweetened whipped…

I love everything about this cake. I love the thin, flavorful sheets of Marjolaine cake, the unique shape, the unadorned sides that reveal the multiple layers, the whipped crème fraiche mellowing the rich ganache and buttercream, and the ease with which one can cut small slices. I even love the name Marjolaine. This was a…