Chocolate Génoise with Whipped Peanut Butter Ganache

Like many, I wondered how this week’s heavenly cake bakers selection would work. It seems an odd combination of flavours — chocolate, black raspberry liqueur, and peanut butter. Chocolate and peanut butter, I get, completely, but add black raspberry into the mix? That being said, when Marie, our host, likened it to a peanut butter and jam sandwich with chocolate bread, it clicked.

When I went looking for Chambord at the LCBO, I knew I only needed a couple of tablespoons of the stuff. There was no way I was about to pay $40+ for a big bottle of Chambord when I only needed two tablespoons. We looked around for anything that we figured would work well with peanut butter and chocolate. We determined that it pretty much had to be a berry flavour. My husband spotted this:

At $15 a bottle, I was willing to give this Framboise (raspberry dessert wine) a shot. Plus, hey, it’s from just down the highway, instead of coming across the ocean, which I’m always in favour of. When the cashier asked if we’d tried it before, I replied that we hadn’t, and she informed me that it was really flavourful. “Perfect!”

You start by mixing boiling water with your cocoa and vanilla, then setting it aside to cool a bit. Melt your clarified butter (mine was pulled out of the freezer), and cover it and keep it warm. Mix the eggs and sugar, then heat them over simmering water, to barely warm to the touch. Whip for 5 minutes, or until they magically transform into a light, billowy foam.

Mix 2 cups or so of the egg foam with the cooled chocolate mixture. Sift the flour over the rest of the eggs, in two additions, folding it in as you go.

Make sure you get all the flour particles mixed in. I still haven’t figured this one out, as evidenced by the little pellets I end up picking out of the bottom of my cake. 😛

Fold in the chocolate mixture.

Pour into a prepared pan.

After baking, you remove it from the pan, and flip it back right side up immediately to avoid collapse.

The ganache and syrup were pretty straightforward. The syrup is a combination of sugar, water, and the framboise I showed above. The ganache is melted chocolate, with peanut butter whisked in, then cold whipping cream added, and the works are whisked until you get soft peaks.

After syruping the cake on the top and bottom, then frosting with the ganache, here’s what you get:

If I remember correctly, it was in the marriage vows that my husband gets first dibs on anything containing peanut butter, so he took this one into work today. I’m told he made an executive decision and stashed a couple of pieces in hiding. He left me a ‘tiny sliver’ (his words) when he helped himself to some dessert after dinner while I was on the treadmill. The “tiny sliver” (a reasonable portion, if I’m honest) was delicious. I think I’ll definitely put both the cake part and the peanut butter whipped ganache on my list of favourites, though I’m not sure whether I’ll combine them with the berry syrup again. Maybe a banana liqueur, and make it an Elvis special?