Close up shot of the little cakes. Note that all the chocolate chips sunk to the bottom of the cake. Eh. Still tastes good!
It’s post-Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, and I feel like I ate my weight in stuffing this long weekend. I did manage to go on a bit of a hike yesterday, and came home all energized and feeling good (or at least less guilty about all that – very, very delicious – stuffing). And then I realized that today is another of my bake-a-long days. (Anyone else remember the stretchy-pants episode of Friends? It suddenly feels very relevant.)
Today the Tuesdays with Dorie group is making Tiger Cakes recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking Chez Moi cookbook, little almond mini cakes with chunks of chocolate (which are supposed to melt into tiger-ish stripes) with a dollop of ganache on top. V. easy, v. delicious, and v. fattening; there’s more sugar and butter in this recipe than flour or ground almonds. And that’s before one adds in the chocolate!
The batter for these cakes is easy to mix up, and includes 3/4 c. sugar and 3/4 c. melted butter. And that’s before one adds in 1/2 c. of chopped chocolate. The recipe calls for finely chopped dark chocolate, but I replaced it with chocolate chips because I used the last of my dark chocolate stash for some other recipe. (Can’t remember which, but I believe it was delicious!)
Do they look like Dorie’s? Close enough, I say! Don’t know how she got those perfect crunchy exteriors, but oh well.
Once the little cakes are baked and cooled, one is supposed to put a bit of ganache on top. I didn’t have cream in the house and didn’t want to buy a whole container just for this recipe, so where the recipe calls for chocolate and cream to make the ganache, I subbed in chocolate chips, milk, and a spoonful of generic-Nutella. A bit gloppy as opposed to smooth, but…close enough, I think!
The DH tasted the little cakes plain (right out of the oven and before they were cooled – we’re well matched! *grin*) and liked the flavour. I tasted them without the “ganache” and with, and I have to say, I actually liked them better without the extra chocolate. It’s a rare cake that isn’t improved by chocolate in my book, but this is one of them. I was actually very impressed with the almond flavour; I tasted the batter (raw egg and all – I’m so daring! *grin*) and did a double-take and checked whether I had put in almond flavouring or vanilla, as it tasted so almond-y.
Aside from recommending them without the extra ganache, the only other comment I have about these cakes is that I didn’t find them as easy to remove from the pan as I expected them to be. Ah well. I’ve packed a container of them for work tomorrow, in an effort to avoid the stretchy-pants fate. If they’re not here, I can’t eat them, right? Even if they are delicious. So delicious.
One more can’t hurt, can it? Maybe I’ll have just one more taste….
Next Post: Pumpkin Pie, using home-canned pumpkin! Or store bought. To each, his own, oui?
Housekeeping Notes: I just started an FB page for this blog, so now you can follow me on FB! Gorgeous pics (says I), delicious recipes, and I promise to also post my #kitchenfails so that you can have a good laugh. Now that’s worth following me for, yes? You can find me at www.facebook.com/approachingfood. See you in cyberspace?
I love the idea of adding Nutella. I’m a Nutella addict so this sounds right up my street!
Katie xoxo
Want to be my Nutella bestie? I heart Nutella so much!
I thought about finely chopping some chocolate chips but was too lazy
So I grates my cooking chocolate instead and my stripes disappeared. I think if you let them come to room temperature the exterior goes a little crunchy 
Nice job!
Ooh, I totally should have chopped up the chocolate chips! Good to know for next time. Thanks, Mardi!
Cute story about the stretchy pants. All the big food holidays are coming so I am sure I will wear a pair or two. I loved these chocolate and all.
I know for sure I have to find my stretchy pants with the upcoming holidays. But when the schmeken beckons… personally I think I left my chocolate too crunchy to be stripey… not that they were any less delicious.
Stretchy pants hide a multitude of sins. And baked goods. Mmmm…baked goods!
The tip of substituting cream and chocolate with Nutella works for me. Any idea in lightening the cakes, short of not eating them, is welcome.
“Short of not eating them” – exactly! Because that is just not acceptable.
the cakes were quite rich without the chocolate and I almost left some plain but did not have a use for the extra ganache, so in the waste not want not theory…I also brought them to work-my coworkers finished them off!
Coworkers are great like that!
Btw, apparently ganache freezes. I haven’t tried it myself but I remember reading one of the other bakers in this group mentioning that. I plan to try it out!
They look very lovely and delicious. What’s not to love about them? Oh the stretchy pant fait! I igure if I eat them very quickly it doesn’t count.
I like how you think! If you eat them quickly, does that mean that you burn more calories? Works for me!
Your coworkers with thank you– these are delish! Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving…I’m getting pretty excited thinking about eating stuffing here next month.
They did like them, thanks! And oh that Thanksgiving stuffing…mmm!
I love the idea of a nutella ganache – that would have been a hit here! A few have complained about the sticking but I used bakers joy spray and had no issues.
BTW, congratulations on your win at Canada’s Baking and Sweets Show!
Thanks, Zosia! I’ll have to look into Baker’s Joy — I want to get that perfect exterior next time!
Your cakes look wonderful. I tasted mine before using
the ganache and I liked them plain too.
Nutella sounds like it would work really well! Great idea!