Hidemi Sugino's Charme

Based on Hidemi Sugino's Charme. The original recipe called for griottes (morello cherries soaked in kirsch), so I went out and got some. They were freaking expensive (almost $30 for 400grams, of which only about 220g was the actual cherries) - and awful in the cake! way too alcoholic. So i chopped up some, and mixed it up with chopped canned dark cherries.

Layers from bottom to top: chocolate biscuit joconde soaked with kirsch, dark chocolate chantilly cream, layer of cherries, milk chocolate chantilly cream, another layer of soaked chocolate biscuit joconde, then finally a layer of white chocolate chantilly cream. Topped with cocoa powder, chocolate shards and griottes dipped in chocolate.

quinoa for dinner

Quinoa with carrots, mushrooms and cashew nuts. I ate it hot; it was more like a very healthy version of fried rice than a salad. I would make this again, but perhaps with grilled root vegetables instead of the carrots (I don't like carrots)..

chocolate zucchini cake

something uncomplicated today, after all those fussy french pastries.

i think i have new muscles from grating all that zucchini. the cake turned out a little bitter (cos i ran out of 56% chocolate couverture and had to use the 70% kind) - couldn't taste the zucchini at all, though it was slightly fibrous/chewy. But that could have been because of the wholewheat flour.

this was very addictive when it came out from the oven - warm, dense, with pockets of melty chocolate. we'll see how it is after it has a day or so to sit in the fridge.