post #200- philadelphia almond cake.

This cake got the VIP privilege here because it's a spectacular one totally worthy of my 200th post! Wow... that's a lot of blabbering from me.

By the way, did you all notice an addition to my blog name? Well, in case you missed it, it's others eat breakfast for dessert, i eat dessert for breakfast. I don't lie. I'm eating this cake as I type at 11 in the morning. Okay, technically, it's brunch. But you get my drift.

If you think this cake looks suspiciously like a PH aka Pierre Herme recipe, you're absolutely correct! And like all PH recipes I've tried so far, this one passed with flying colours. It consists of a almond sponge, cream cheese mousse, cherries and a layer of streusel which, surprisingly, isn't my favourite part. I think the best component of this cake is the refreshing mousse. It's slightly sweeter than the cream cheese and blueberry cake one, but retains a bit of tartness which pairs so well with the juicy dark cherries.

This is kind of random, but making the almond sponge brought back memories of macaron baking. The technique is almost the same- the only difference is when folding in the dry ingredients, you want to keep the air, not deflate the batter.

I have only two complaints.

First, this cake is extremely low in height. The ratio of cake to mousse is practically 1:1. I wish there was more mousse to go around, or maybe that's because I'm just greedy. Cakes with a french influence are never like towering 4 layer american cakes. They are slim, sleek and chic.

Secondly, although the streusel was crunchy, it wasn't as flavorful as I would like. This is because white sugar was used instead of brown, which I prefer.

But really, this cake is another winner.