In an Ode to Julia Child and in honor of the movie Julie & Julia coming out today, I thought it would be fun to bake a recipe of Julia Child's. In my searching, I found this recipe on Epicurious.com for Reine de Saba. I have absolutely NO idea how to really pronounce it. Which is so very sad since I took THREE years of French in high school. Oh well. The fact that I can only guess at the pronunciation didn't diminish the flavor of this delicious cake!
From the melted chocolate filled with Rum mixed into the batter, to the second batch of melted chocolate with Rum flavoring, it was complete heaven!
I did make a few mistakes, though and just so you know, I don't drink alcohol, but don't mind baking with it once in a while when the alcohol part will bake out (and Rum is my favorite!). So, for this to still taste so fantastic, is a miracle! It calls for ground almonds in the batter, but honestly, I couldn't taste the almond. I also cooked the cake a bit too long so it wasn't the underbaked creamy texture that it was supposed to be, but still excellent! The chocolate frosting ended up a tad bit lumpy...see photos. Where that happened, I don't know. All-in-all I'm pretty proud of myself for completing this one and getting something so delicious out of it.
Ah...chocolate. That part was good, too, obviously! This cake wasn't overpowering with chocolate as strange as that may seem. All the flavors balanced beautifully! And, by the way, if you're not a fan of the rum flavoring, I think this would still taste incredible if you used almond or vanilla flavorings in place of the rum.
Well, I'd love to include more, but I'm off to go see Julie & Julia with my sisters and Mom. I can't wait! I'll definitely post a review for anyone interested.
Until Next Time!
**UPDATE**
I can't tell you how much I thoroughly LOVE LOVE LOVE This movie! I've now seen it 2x in one week! I'm obsessed! Meryl Streep was incredible as Julia Child...she deserves an Oscar!
If you haven't seen it already, what'cha waiting for! Get your fanny on over to the theater and enjoy this one as much as I have!
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Looks great. I would probably use the rum extract for the cake as well though. The alchol only cooks out to about 45% at the baking time you listed. There are many links about how the alchol doesn't cook out. This is my favorite:
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