Recipes for all the layers are in The Splendid Indulgence of Chocolate Truffles, Sugar free Truffle section, including the almost sugar free caramel.

Chelsea’s Truffle cake review

I just tried something called “chocolate truffle cake.” The concept of it is kind of like a Super Oreo. Imagine a cake that tastes like pure, soft chocolate, then a thick layer of caramel on top of it, then another thick layer of chocolate on top of that!

As soon as you open up the cake packaging, you can smell it immediately. Kind of like when you make fresh cookies and pull them out of the oven – the kitchen is instantly filled with a dense, mouth-watering caramel smell.

What’s great about this cake is I actually feel good while eating it, because I know it’s healthy. When I’m finished eating it I feel full, but my stomach doesn’t have that “heavy-I-just-ate-Thanksgiving-Dinner” feeling of full that most truffles have. It’s more like a satisfied full.

Also, with a lot of chocolate cake or truffles you’re really worried about crumbs. But with this, just because it’s so moist and the chocolate is so amazingly thick, there are absolutely ZERO crumbs (and I would recognize chocolate crumbs since my shirt is bright pink.) This is really convenient, because you can actually wrap the cake up in saran wrap and eat it on-the-go while enjoying a latte! Imagine a cake where you can put the entire thing in plastic and not worry about frosting going everywhere – I swear this is the cake of the future!

I’m infatuated with caramel, and for some reason I never think chocolate caramels ever have enough caramel in them (Even when it’s mostly caramel with very little chocolate) but this cake has this amazing, caramel-bursts-into-your-mouth flavor. It’s just so rich that you immediately feel like your entire mouth is engulfed with fresh caramel, then you have lots and lots of chocolate for your mouth to have fun with.

Also, the chocolate and caramel have really distinct, sweet flavors. A lot of truffles, even though they’re really good, all the different parts of the truffle that had so much potential kind of end up having the same general taste. But with this cake – you can close your eyes and let your tongue pinpoint the chocolate, the caramel, how much chocolate is there, etc. I can actually taste the effort and creativity it took to create it in the first place. Every single bit of chocolate and caramel feels like it was placed there for a really important purpose, like you wouldn’t want to add a gram of chocolate more or less.

Another thing I really like about the caramel is its perfect texture – not too hard and not so soft that it’s runny. The caramel just stays exactly where it is, so you can suck on it, dunk it in coffee, or just bite right into it!

In conclusion, I’m a huge fan of the cake! It’s delicious, moist, and I would really love it on my next birthday!

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about what it takes to make the good stuff. First, you need a really good chocolate truffle recipe. I’ve included several ideas in previous blogs. Once you’ve got that, here’s a comprehensive list of tools that you need:

Appliances

• A Chef’s Knife or implement to chop your chocolate and nuts.   I really prefer a my Cuisinart, It makes the job of chopping up larger amounts of chocolate for fondue and layers and layers of truffle “cake”  very quick and very easy.
• Food Processor: I recommend a good Cuisinart, but you can get a cheap food processor for $20-30 at Target, Wal-Mart, or even your local hardware store.  The nut paste marzipans and fruit purees  used to fill or even wrap a large “truffle cake” (see photo) are incredibly easy to make with a good processor.

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  Layers of chocolate wraped in Hazelnut marzipan

• Double Boiler for melting or tempering  the chocolate: A double boiler consists of a lower saucepan and an upper pan. You can buy a nice one, or just put a larger bowl inside another to melt your chocolate. When you’re making truffles, you can burn the chocolate if you heat it up too high (chocolate melts at around body temperature, so you should keep the temperature low).   See my post “Don’t Burn the Chocolate…“
• Pan Scrapper – Rubber or silicon, to make sure you get every last drop of chocolate. You can stir with the silicon type of scraper.  They’re heat safe.
• Measuring Spoons and Cups – regular teaspoon, 1/4 , 1/2, and 1 teaspoon, tablespoon and 1/4,  1/3, 1/2 and 1 cup measures.  You probably already have these in your kitchen.
• Accurate Candy Thermometer is helpful for truffle making and necessary for properly tempering the chocolate. I use three different thermometers. One with a low scale that can read temperatures from 70 degrees and up accurately (I also use this one to check temperatures for my wine yeasts).  One is a higher range thermometer for making the caramel.  This one needs to go at least as high as 250 degrees. For caramel, you need to clearly discern the temperature range  of 235 – 244 degrees.  My third thermometer is digital and has a range of 0 degrees to more than 400 degrees. I often use the two in two different parts of the pan for greater accuracy when making caramel and tempering chocolate.
• Candy Dipping Tools make  dipping the truffles a bit neater than using your fingers, and maybe not as much fun.  These are a bit more exotic than your local stores may have, although some of the craft stores may have them.  Anyway, I’ve provided a few links to make it easier to find.
• http://www.sugarcraft.com/catalog/candies/candypage.htm#dip
• http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=189125&CCAID=FROOGLE189125
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• Kitchen Collection Stores – http://www.kitchencollection.com
• Kitchen Scale is useful for weighing the chocolate  – but not mandatory.  Prices vary from $10 -$30 for an adequate scale.