Reine de Saba

Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking contains many lovely cake recipes. My mom tells me stories of when I was just born she would use this book to bake cakes for my dad and brother. I wanted to start learning to bake cakes from scratch for my boyfriend, and Mother Judith highly recommended this Chocolate Almond Cake.

This is a man's dessert, no frills to it but it sure does taste delicious! I was able to use fresh grown Almonds from my Grandfather’s ranch. The consistency resembles a brownie when done correctly. It was an adventure baking it, but the finish product is yummy. You can find the recipe on page 677 of the book or click here for the link. I also used the Chocolate-butter Icing suggested in her book, which can also be found on page 684 or on that previous link.  

My biggest issue was making the frosting. The technique that is used is hard to master. Mother Judith warns against making it to thin, or else the cake will absorb it. I had the problem of making it to thick and hard to spread. Eventually the desired texture was reached after much trial and error.

Here is the end result.

Reine de Saba

Nancy Jane