Tartine's Devil's Food Layer Cake

After making Sweetapolita's Neapolitan cake a few weeks ago, I've been itching for another attempt at cake making. Thumbing through my cook books, Tartine's devil's food layer cake caught my eye. While I enjoyed the simplicity of its appearance, a crumb coated cake topped off with a dollop of ganache, I knew with a name like that I'd be in for a chocolaty treat. And boy was I ever. This was by far the most rich and luscious cake I've ever made, let alone eaten.

Comprised of bittersweet chocolate ganache and a fresh batch of caramel sandwiched between five layers of chocolate cake (with over 1 cup of cocoa powder and 1 pound of sugar), this cake is definitely not for the faint of heart. After carefully layering each decadent ingredient,  the cake is covered with a thin layer of even more ganache and coated it with a dusting of leftover cake crumbs. I really loved how this came out. It's the ultimate chocolate lover's cake without giving you a tooth ache. With such intense flavor, a small sliver is all you need to satisfy your craving. From the smooth ganache, to the gooey caramel, to the crunch of the cake crumb, the combination of textures were a great variation of the theme: chocolate.

I wouldn't say this was hard to make, just a bit time consuming. But what layered cakes aren't? Finishing the cake would have been a lot easier if I used a rotating cake stand but I've yet to purchase one. Even still, I'm quite happy with how even my layers of ganache came out. My only criticism is I wish the outer crumb coat was more even, but again, without the cake stand I was too scared to move it around too much.

You can find the entire recipe online here, but I'd definitely recommend buying the book.