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Death by Chocolate

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About twenty years ago, Marcel Desaulniers at the Trellis restaurant in Williamsburg, VA created a new chocolate dessert that took everyone by storm.  It was and is the ultimate chocolate cake; basically combining every single chocolate dessert into one incredibly rich and decadent cake.  It takes no less than two days to make, and requires over three pounds of chocolate and was dubbed Death by Chocolate.

This was the dessert that I conquered for my husband’s Birthday and Father’s Day Crab Feast.  To give you some background information, the Husband has raved about this cake to me since we first met.  His mother is a very adventurous cook and one summer the family made a three day adventure of making this dessert.  When I asked him what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday this year his instructions were “either something chocolate or something strawberry or a combination of the two”.  My first instinct was this cake.

It took me three days to make.  Of the six different recipes it takes to make the seven layers in the cake, I had to re-make no less than three (so incredibly frustrating!).

Here’s a rundown of the layers:
1) Brownie
2) Ganache
3) Cocoa Meringue
4) Mocha Mousse
5) Brownie
6) More Ganache
7) Chocolate Mousse

It is served over a pool of mocha rum sauce.  Each layer is so tasty, but the meringue actually adds a nice bite to the cake.  I had every intention of documenting the process with my camera as I got started…but reality set in too quickly and I didn’t get any photos after the first layer.  Someday I will remake this monster of a cake, but until then you can find the recipe here.  Hopefully then I can actually make all six recipes only once and get the ganache a bit smoother!

This post is linked up to the parties identified at the bottom of my page!

 

About Leslie

Leslie is the passionate party planner in her family. Living with metastatic breast cancer since 2022, she is determined to find a way to continue making amazing parties for her kids that don't leave you exhausted. To do that Leslie combines the experience she learned working for a professional event planner with the reality of a busy family life to create party inspiration that the average mom can reproduce and be proud of.

Comments

  14. Kim from Maiden D'Shade says

    That looks amazing! Good to know it takes several days to make. Maybe that is what I'll make when I reach my goal weight! Every bit of motivation helps, right? šŸ™‚ Thanks for sharing!

  15. Anonymous says

    You should get the whole book and make your way through it. I don't actually think this is the best recipe in there, which is hard to believe. The chocolate strawberry mousse cake is incredible and you should definitely try all the homemade ice cream recipes. The chocolate, raspberry, hazelnut is just… wow. His follow up, Desserts to die for has some amazing non-chocolate recipes as well. The drunken Zombie Cake is so much fun and so tasty I have made it many times.

    I bet your hubby was feeling the love when he ate this. : ) Congratulations on your success!

    ~Jenn in Forest Grove

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