Autumn Leaf Cake, Scharffen Berger Bakery Crawl, and a Contest

Recently, I was fortunate enough to snag an invitation to a special event in San Francisco: a bakery crawl hosted by Scharffen Berger® Chocolate Maker. Scharffen Berger® was kicking off its latest contest: Elevate a Classic Dessert with Scharffen Berger® Chocolate (more on that later). As part of the launch, they challenged some of the city's best pastry chefs to elevate a classic dessert using Scharffen Berger® chocolate, and I was to be among a lucky group of food bloggers and writers to taste their creations.* An afternoon in the city, tasting chocolate and hanging with famous pastry chefs? Yes, please.

We met at the Scharffen Berger® Chocolate store in the Ferry Building Marketplace on a beautiful Friday afternoon, then boarded the trolley car which would take us on our Bakery Crawl. I knew from some pre-event Twitter exchanges that a few familiar food blogger faces would be on the trolley with me, including Irvin from Eat The Love and Benjamin from You Fed A Baby Chili?, 

Irvin and Ben photos courtesy of Scharffen Berger® Chocolate Co.

along with Catherine from Munchie Musings, and Sheri and Larry from Pork Cracklins.

As we headed out, our lovely hostesses passed around some chocolate squares as "appetizers." Of course, I was happy to partake, because five chocolate desserts in one afternoon might not be enough. Is that wrong? Because it felt so, so right.

Basket of chocolates photo courtesy of Scharffen Berger® Chocolate Co.

Our first stop was Anthony's Cookies on Valencia Street. I almost felt sorry for Anthony's other customers, as our group completely overtook the small shop.

Group photo courtesy of Scharffen Berger® Chocolate Co.

But after tasting Anthony's Double Chocolate Chunk Cookie with Walnuts, I realized that no one could really blame us for swarming the place. This man's cookies are the bomb, and he even offered us a choice of regular or soy milk to wash it down. I'm surprised his bakery didn't have a line out the door when we arrived. The fact that Anthony himself is a smiling ray of sunshine was the icing on the cake... er, cookie.

Next, we headed over to my husband's old neighborhood, Pacific Heights, to visit Citizen Cake at its new location on Fillmore Street. The amazing Elizabeth Falkner herself was there to greet us. Maybe you've heard of her? She is just a teeny bit famous.

And for good reason. Elizabeth is supremely talented, but she is also utterly charming, cheerfully accommodating our star-struck requests for photos and patiently describing every detail of her dessert-making process as we jockeyed for optimal viewing positions.

One of the things I love about cooking and baking is the science of it all. Elizabeth brought food science to life with delicious results by flash-freezing the Chocolate Gelato with nitro-glycerin, then building a Chocolate Gelato Sundae with Chocolate Cake Crumbles and Marshmallow Cream. I never really understood the appeal of ice cream sundaes, as I always found them a bit too heavy and cloyingly sweet. However, Elizabeth's version made me a believer, striking a nice balance of textures and flavors among the creamy-rich gelato, chocolate-y pieces of cake, and fluffy marshmallow cream. Wow.

I was so giddy about taking a pic with Elizabeth that I forgot to remove my earpiece. And I also forgot how to keep my eyes inside my head. What a dork. But can you blame me? She's so great! (Total girl crush, I admit it.)

Photo courtesy of Scharffen Berger® Chocolate Co.

By the time we left Citizen Cake, we were running a little behind schedule. Back on the trolley, we made our way to our third stop: Kara's Cupcakes.

Confession time. Until this event, I had never even heard of Kara's Cupcakes. Wha? I know. But the girl knows her stuff and it was a very happy introduction. The shop itself is pretty in pink, with big, bright windows overlooking the Ghirardelli Square courtyard. Kara's cupcake menu was so appealing, and I love the fact that she uses locally-sourced ingredients that are organic and sustainable whenever possible. I was tempted to take home one of each flavor.

But then I came to my (already-sugar-ridden) senses and limited myself to the single cupcake Kara had created for the event: The Candybar.

Based on the moniker I expected it to be super-sweet... not really the thing for this dark chocolate lover. But I'll be honest, Kara's dessert ended up being one of my favorites of the day. A chocolate cupcake filled with caramel, topped with a milk chocolate peanut butter ganache frosting and sprinkled with sea salt, The Candybar tasted just like a candy bar, only better. The inclusion of Scharffen Berger® unsweetened cocoa powder, together with the sea salt topping, elevated this candybar cupcake to grown-up, suitable-for-kids-but-made-for-adults status. After one bite, I was a fan... and I immediately regretted my earlier cupcake restraint.

There was no time for pouting over lost cupcakes, however, as we still had two more chocolate desserts to taste before the day was finished! Back on the trolley for one last ride, we headed back the Ferry Building.

Photo courtesy of Scharffen Berger® Chocolate Co.

By this time, we were an hour behind schedule. Everyone was having too much fun on the Bakery Crawl! Unfortunately, that meant we barely had time to peruse the lovely offerings at Miette before grabbing take-home boxed slices of Miette's Triple Chocolate Cream Cake. 

Photo courtesy of Scharffen Berger® Chocolate Co.

I finally got a chance to taste the cake the next day, and it was definitely worth the wait. The chocolate cake was layered with silky chocolate Chantilly cream into which Miette had mixed crunchy, roasted Cacao Nibs, and the entire cake was covered in semi-sweet chocolate ganache. My husband shared a slice with me during a second-round chocolate tasting (at my house), and declared it his pick for best dessert of the lot.

Leaving Miette, I was buzzing from a chocolate overload. (Thinking back, it may not have been a good idea to skip lunch before the Bakery Crawl.) But our day of chocolate was not over yet. Scharffen Berger® had one more, very special treat for us that I wasn't about to miss. We gathered in the Ferry Building's CUESA demo kitchen for a baking class with Yigit Pura, Executive Pastry Chef at San Francisco's Taste Catering Co., and winner of the 2010 Top Chef: Just Desserts.

Chef Yigit took us through all the steps of making his Chai Tea-Spiced Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache Glaze. With his boyish good looks, easy smile, engaging stories and obvious baking expertise, Chef Yigit was a natural showman and teacher. I was smitten. (Total pastry crush, I admit it.)

One of the things I really enjoyed was the casual Q&A that went on throughout Chef Yigit's class. We learned a lot of great baking tips. Did you know the temperature of your oven can drop up to 25 degrees each time you open the door to check on your sweets? Chef Yigit's advice: don't piss off your oven, don't piss off your cake, don't open the door until the last few minutes of baking.

When the baking class was finished, we were treated to Chef Yigit's Chai Tea-Spiced Chocolate Cupcakes. So sophisticated and rich. The cake had a deep, dark chocolate flavor that married beautifully with the Chai spice. I wish I could tell you what he filled the cupcakes with -- I think it may have been caramel buttercream -- but alas, my fingers were covered in chocolate ganache so I didn't have a chance to write it down. Trust me, it was amazing.

I was able to tear myself away from the cupcakes long enough to grab a photo with Chef Yigit. What a cutie! It was such a pleasure to meet him and take part in the baking class.

The Bakery Crawl was over. Together with Chef Yigit's baking class, it was a great way to spend the day. Thanks so much to all the bakeries for the delicious desserts, to Chefs Elizabeth Faulkner and Yigit Pura for sharing their time and knowledge with us, and especially to our host, Scharffen Berger® Chocolate Maker.

Photo courtesy of Scharffen Berger® Chocolate Co.

What about that contest? I'm glad you asked. The folks at Scharffen Berger® are challenging bakers to pick their favorite classic desserts and put a new twist on them... using Scharffen Berger® Chocolate, of course. If your creation is chosen as the Grand Prize winner, you'll take home $10,000 (!) plus a big ol' collection of chocolates and baking books. The top three winning recipes will also be featured on the Scharffen Berger® website. The contest runs through January 2, 2012. You can find all the details over at the Elevate a Classic Dessert Contest website, and one idea to get you started, below. So get baking!

Autumn Leaf Cake
Adapted from Hershey's Kitchens

Not long after the Bakery Crawl, my kids asked if I would bake a cake for an old-fashioned cake walk at their school's fall carnival. I was inspired to use Scharffen Berger® Chocolate and elevate a classic chocolate cake recipe by decorating the cake with edible chocolate leaves. Because sometimes all you need to elevate a classic dessert is... more chocolate.

Make the cake:  Follow this recipe for the cake and frosting, substituting Scharffen Berger® Unsweetened Natural Cocoa Powder in place of the cocoa. Divide the batter among three 6x2-inch (or 6x3-inch) round cake pans, about 2 cups of batter in each. Make a double batch of the frosting to fill and frost the three-layer cake.

Make the chocolate leaves:  melt 1 cup of Scharffen Berger® 70% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate; set aside. In a separate bowl, melt 1 cup of a good quality white chocolate (look for one with at least 30% cocoa butter). Working in small batches, drizzle one of the chocolates over the other in a small bowl. Do not mix the two or you'll wind up with plain old brown. You are going for large swirls of dark and white. 

Gently dip a pastry brush in the melted chocolate. Working quickly, brush a layer on the back of a large, clean, non-poisonous leaf (lemon leaves work really well). Be careful not to get chocolate on the front of the leaf. Repeat until chocolate is gone. Set the leaves chocolate side up on a large plate; cool in the refrigerator. Remove when the chocolate hardens, and gently peel each leaf from its chocolate layer. Avoid touching the chocolate leaves as much as possible, as the thin chocolate will melt quickly from the heat of your fingers. 

Decorate the cake:  Scatter the leaves on the top and sides of the cake, using a pair of small tongs. Keep decorated cake in the fridge; remove up to 30 minutes before serving.

* Disclosure: Scharffen Berger® provided the trolley, chocolates, bakery tour and baking class for free as part of a series of media events to launch the contest. The other participants and I also received a small gift bag from Scharffen Berger® that included some of their chocolate products, a whisk and an apron. Neither the tour nor the gift bag influenced the opinions in this post. I was motivated to write this post to promote the baking contest to other bakers, and because the day was a great experience. Scharffen Berger® neither required, nor requested, that I write about the event or the contest.

Comments

[- db! -]

Uh...thanks...now I am jones'ing for some of your chocolate delights! That was awesome!

[Heln DiPasquale]

fantastic blog !! this endeavor brings you such joy !!! so happy for you !!!

[Kim]

Wow, what a fun event! I obviously live in the wrong part of California.... :(

And don't worry, I get star-struck, too. I recently met Matt from www.mattbites.com and forgot I spoke English.

[K]

[Dawn (KitchenTravels)]

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

@Kim - LOL! Glad I'm not the only one. :)

[CalPeggy Calhoun]

Wow.....I wish I would have read this before entering the Scharffen Berger! Amazing Chefs!

[aprons]

what a crawl...so awesome! by the way the leaves on the Autumn Leaf Cake looks really real dried leaves how remarkable!