the finished product!

That, my friends, is a chocolate-earl grey cake! And it tastes amazing! Not only did it turn out wonderfully, it also was a blast to make!

I picked this recipe because it sounded like something I'd love. It's chocolate and it's tea! How can you go wrong?

The morning in question, after I signed off of the computer, I walked to my nearby Henry's Market (which is amazing) and purchased those ingredients we didn't have at home. When I got back to my apartment I began to preheat the oven and steep the tea and I was about to start melting the chocolate when I realized that although any of our pots would have worked it would be best in a double boiler. Alas, I do not have one, so I ran out to my car and zipped over to Target. From there, while standing in the aisle with a double boiler in one hand and a pyrex bowl in the other I call my mom - that source of amazing cooking wisdom - to ask her opinion on melting chocolate. With years of making English Toffee for Christmas she knows a thing or two about melting chocolate. However she informs me that she recently found out from one of San Francisco's best pastry chefs that the way to melt chocolate is in the microwave. So I go with the pyrex bowl and return home!

Upon returning home, I decide that having White Christmas on in the background would only make my cake that much better. So after hitting play, I start melting the chocolate in 10sec intervals in the microwave...for the most part everything went well. Thanks to Becky who purchased an electric hand mixer for the apartment last month I was able to get everything mixed well. When everything was mixed together, however the directions said to pour the batter into the pan...and well the batter didn't seem like it would easily pour. In fact it felt more like a mousse in texture than cake batter. The airy but slightly stiff mixture. But I spooned it into the pan and set it to bake for the requisite 50min after double and triple checking that I'd added every ingredient and not too much of one thing or another. After cleaning all of my utensils and dishes and counters, I decided that a cake like this, despite the recipe calling for just a dusting of powdered sugar, deserved a well thought out topping. So I found a recipe for a browned butter frosting and worked on that! Mmmmm! Once the cake was done, I let it cool a little while and then lightly poured the frosting on top and then I melted more chocolate to drizzle over that! It has been amazing!

The flavors within one bite are many and amazing. It's moist and although you'd expect the chocolate to be strong it's nicely soft with the earl grey notes playing throughout! And then with the almost toffee-ish flavored frosting and dark chocolate on top it's one fun mix of flavors! I wish I could send you a slice so you could try it yourself! In lieu of that I'll just post another picture.