Chocolate Rose

This is the same recipe we used for "Not your Mom's chocolate cake" on february 11th. The difference with this one is the inside of the cake, also has seedless raspberry jam in between the kahlua and the chocolate buttercream. 

The chocolate buttercream is the same, but half of the batch was made from the recipe, and 3 cups of whipped cream were folded in to the buttercream, making it lighter in color and taste. This cake was decorated with fresh raspberries and a chocolate rose dusted with cocoa powder and powdered sugar. See how we made it.

You'll need to melt about 1/3C of chocolate, any kind you prefer. We used semi sweet chocolate. Then pour it on to the back of a clean, metal, uncoated sheet pan. It will get ruined slightly with scrape marks, just know that ahead of time. The chocolate does not need to be tempered when it is poured on the back of a sheet pan. You need to use a large offset spatula to spread a thin coat of chocolate, covering the back of the sheet pan. Not too thin to see through it, but not too thick either, this won't make the leaves look as nice. Thinner is better.

This looks good, a nice and thin layer. Now let the chocolate set, you don't want it completely hard, this will make it crumble, and you don't want it too soft, so it needs to be a nice in between, malleable stage. If you are in a warm environment you can cool it in the refrigerator for a minute, and if in a cold environment you can put it in the oven for 10 seconds if the chocolate gets too hard.

Using the side of the metal bench scraper, make strips, about 1" long. For the center of the rose the chocolate has to be harder for it to curl, the edge is good for that, then the other strips should be softer to get straight strips. Move the bench scraper forward in a straight line to make the strips, and as they are made form the rose, petal by petal. The chocolate strips have to be soft enough for them to stick to the previous petal as you go.

Make more strips and form them in to fans, by ruffling one side, and pinching the other. These are good fillers to place under the leaves of the rose to cover the bottom of the rose so that you can't see through it.

Dust cocoa powder at an angle over the rose and the fans to give a softer effect, and cover any finger prints.
Put a dollop of buttercream in the center of the cake, and place the rose straight on it, then fill the sides with the ruffled fans to cover anything you don't want seen. Then place the raspberries around it, always an odd amount over even, then dust a little powdered sugar on top of the rose and the raspberries.