The word for this cake is CHOCOLATE, serious chocolate. A forgotten jewel from the collection comes to life-Bittersweet Chocolate Cake with Almonds, Raisins and Whiskey. Food fads come and go, but the Bijouxs remain.
With over 500+ cookbooks and a bursting file of collected recipes from family, friends, and clippings, it’s hard to remember every great recipe I have prepared. While listening to a podcast from Milk Street Radio (No. 114 Dorie’s Cookies) Dorie Greenspan spoke of how she was only fired from one job–and it involved this cake. Listen to hear her story.
My prior involvement with this cake was different. Beginning my culinary education, our teachers had just returned from cooking with Simone Beck (Simca) at her home in France. Back at home in class we prepared some of her recipes, of course I bought her cookbook, Simca’s Cuisine. As a chocolate lover, I was driven to make the Gâteau au chocolate: Le Doris. Now, fast forward to today, I had all but forgotten about the cake.
THEN my memory was sparked by Dorie’s story about baking this cake for a then-famous restaurant in New York City. I know that cake! By now I owned a coveted first printing of Simca’s book–I adore her recipes. Again, I was driven to bake this cake.
It was just as delicious as the first time I baked it. Words to describe it? Rich but light, dense yet tender, with chocolate everywhere and not too sweet–in short, a chocolate cake lovers dream. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and to the moon.
Don’t be alarmed, when you bake it, she’s not too-tall a cake. It looks like it could be heavy, but it’s not. Ground almonds and eggs whites keep a lightness, yet the cake is rich but tender. How good it is when you discover a surprise of a raisin that has been bathed in whiskey. As you can see in the sliced photo, the cake is very soft, and pure chocolate. The simple icing is all it needs. (As you know, only in the kitchen photos here at Bijouxs, I want you to see how recipes really look.)
I have adapted the recipe by using a mix of my favorite dark bittersweet chocolates, subbing out for of the sweet chocolate of the original, both in the cake and the icing. A small addition of topping with cacao nibs. But no major changes to the ingredients, I don’t want to get fired:)
Food fads do come and go, the Bijouxs remain.
As always, enjoy. B
It’s delicious!
Thank you Julie! I love getting your recipe feedback during testing:) Best~ Bijouxs
This cake is super-chocolatey, but light like a mousse, and not too sweet. I love it!
Thank you Virginia! Spot on! You are a fab recipe tester.
[…] at a bakery in New York City. That is, until the day she made a creative change to their signature “Simca Beck’s Gateau Doris,” using Armagnac-soaked prunes and pecans instead of whiskey-soaked raisins and […]