Maple Chocolate Magnolia Cake

I just finished making this cake for Heidi's Birthday Party. The flower is 100% Chocolate!!

I love chocolate covered maple creams, and since the Maple Cream Cupcakes were such a hit, I decided to make a cake sized version for Paulettes girlfriend Heidi.

The cake is a rich chocolate buttermilk cake filled with dark chocolate ganache. (The ganache was made with a 70% dark french chocolate). It is frosted with maple sugar frosting. The decoration is maple chocolate icing and a handcrafted white chocolate magnolia with dark chocolate leaves.

So basically chocolate, chocolate, chocolate! Oh, and maple cream, of course.
Maple Frosting Recipe:
2 blocks of local maple cream
3 cups of confectioners sugar
1 tsp bourbon vanilla
1 tbsp meringue powder
2 1/2 cups unsalted butter

This is a rich, sweet frosting.
Cream the butter. Heat the maple cream in the microwave, ten seconds at a time, until it is a stirable consistency. Beat into the butter mixture. It will melt a little, so after this step I put it in the fridge for ten minutes or so to let it cool a little, just don't leave it too long or your butter will solidify. Remove from the fridge, add the vanilla and re-whip. Slowly add the icing sugar, if it is still a little thin you can add a touch more sugar, but don't be tempted to add too much the maple cream makes this a sweet icing to begin with. It should be light, fluffy and sweet, not sickeningly sugary.

Tomeq (the owner of alchemy of angels, and a wonderful chocolatier) was in this weekend at the cookhouse doing a chocolate decorating demonstration.He inspired me to make the magnolia on this cake. I can't wait for class with him on monday, I've learned a lot from him so far and his classes are fun, and last time I brought home lots of chocolates and truffles. Dan and I sat up late that night sipping coffee from large mugs and savouring chocolates, it was fantastic.
Also, I should note that I love trades! If you want to make a trade send me an email. I could hook you up with some sweets.

I made a lady named Evelyn some roses once and this weekend she brought me a piece of her "black cake" (a traditional cake from Trinidad) with homemade marzipan. I was so impressed! It was heavenly and I was very happy with our trade.

Happy Thanksgiving

Dan, Mom and I had a quiet Thanksgiving. Dan and I are vegetarians so we made a spread of different vegetarian dishes, with lots of local produce and root vegetables. We also made a sweet potato pie with pecans and caramel, which I must admit was one of Martha's recipes. Instead of the white sugar in the crust recipe, I added 2 tbsps of brown sugar. I also added a little more cream to the caramel, and a handful of dried cranberries which gave a little colour and a nice tang.