Monday, January 18, 2010

Reine de Saba Cake

This weekend I made Julia Child's Reine de Saba, or Queen of Sheba cake from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It's the first recipe I tried from that book and I made it because we ended up watching Julie and Julia last night where the cake is featured. I thought it would be fun to actually eat the cake we were seeing in the movie while watching it. This is the first cake I've ever made from scratch and while it was a bit of work, I think it was well worth it. It was moist and unbelievably delicious. I don't think I'll be able to bring myself to make a cake from a mix ever again.
I also made the icing for the cake. I've never made homemade icing before either, and this turned out smooth and chocolatey and amazing! The only problem I had was that the rum I put in it didn't burn off the alcohol before finishing, so it had that bitter alcohol taste to it. It's not my thing, so I'd definitely let the alcohol cook off before adding the chocolate the next time I make it.
You're supposed to put the sliced almonds on the side like this, but I had left over ground almonds from the batter so I scattered them on top to use them up and add more flavor and color. I am really happy with how this turned out. Definitely will make it again.

3 comments:

  1. I was lucky enough to have some of this cake while watching the movie "Julie and Julia" - it was fantastic. and I think both Julia and Julie would have approved of the alternate topping.

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  2. Hi there

    I came across your blog which I am now following and thought you might like to take a peek at mine. I live in the French Alps and write about food and renovating our old watermill. Would you be interested in exchanging links?

    Sarah

    http://atasteofsavoie.blogspot.com/

    email: atasteofsavoie@gmail.com

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  3. Hey Sarah! I just checked out your blog, it's so fancy! I added it to my dashboard so I'll definitely keep checking it out! Thanks for reading mine!

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