This beauty is called the Marquise au Chocolat and is essentially the most decadent and delicious chocolate cake. A layer of chocolate sponge soaked in rum syrup is topped with a layer of praline crisp and then covered in a rich dark chocolate mousse. The whole thing is covered in a dark chocolate glaze and decorated with macarons. Positively sinful.
Today's demo was led by Chef F and was very entertaining, if somewhat difficult to follow. He often breaks off to give us some background information or a little science lesson on why the ingredients react the way they do. It's very interesting, but a little chaotic at times. He instilled some fear in us as he stressed the importance of exact temperatures when making the chocolate mousse. He even went to the trouble of drawing a chart on the white board of all the different results should we have the chocolate too cold, or too hot, and so on...
All of us were a little reluctant to go into the practical as we had heard stories of other students unable to finish the cake in time. We really shouldn't have worried so much. Several of us finished fifteen minutes early and were waiting around, trying to find other things to do with our time. We should have spent that time fixing up our plated desserts. At presentation time, Chef F went pretty easy on us for the cakes. He wasn't so soft-spoken with regards to our plated desserts, though. "Shit! They're complete shit! I wouldn't pay $5 for that!" We were all a bit shocked, but he was completely right. They were quite a sorry mess. I had tried to be a little creative with mine, but it didn't turn out well at all.
The cake, however, was a COMPLETE hit at the office the next day. I pulled it out in the afternoon and could not get any peace until every last crumb was gone. People were coming into the office, groaning with pleasure. I can now fully understand the term "food-gasm" now.
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