Awfully Chocolate vs. Shira's Choice

You may be surprised if I tell you I'm not a chocolate person. I don't like those off the shelf milk chocolate bars like Cadbury... never like the gluey and super sweet taste that stick in my mouth. My perception towards chocolate changed when my cousin offered me a fine piece of chocolate which she bought from a store at Landmark - a very high end shopping mall in Central, HK. This very chocolate appeared in one of the top hit HK movies "God of Gamble 赌神". After he had lost his mind, 赌神 could only play cards like God again after he ate these dark chocolate.

To be honest, in my journey of baking cake, I hardly make chocolate cake, be it chocolate cream or chocolate mousse cake. I may have made some brownies once. Even for my cookies, I prefer making those without chocolate chips. But how could a baker not know how to make chocolate cake and do not enjoy eating these popular cakes, I asked myself one day. And the chance came when my neighbour asked if I could make one for her friend. I knew it's time to dig through my book shelf and venture into it. I had a few chocolate cakes orders, one after another in the same month. So there was no room for error. I just had to study hard to master the skill.

To stay objective when you comment on the quality of cakes brought from professional bakery shops is tough because food is all about personal preferences and taste. For instance, I liked Lana Cake located at Sixth Ave. The first time I tried it and I instantly fell in love with it. I heard that they use very good quality Belgium chocolate and they don't produce much every day.

Secret Recipe is my first choice of cake shop in general. If I have a crave, they'll be my choice. Their cheese cake and chocolate cake are generally good (esp. banana chocolate, chocolate indulgent, chocolate mud cakes etc)

Bakerzin's cake was good when they 1st came to the market. But I feel that the standard has recently dropped. I visited their shop @ Vivo a few weeks back. U could tell that the cakes had been on the shelf for a few days cox you could see hairline cracks on the cream. These cracks were so visible and the strawberry skin was so dry...

Recently, I read the report about Awfully Chocolate in ST. It was interesting to learn how they started and stuff like that. I expected quite a lot when my hubby bought home a "banana chocolate cake". Verdict: my kids couldn't finish a small slice and they said they didn't like the cream. Each one of us had one slice and the rest of the cake was stuck inside the fridge for days... my helper and I slowly finished it off ... don't think I will buy from them again.

Today, I could proudly say that my chocolate cream ganache cake is one of my best cake selections. I usually use at least 50% cocoa couverture to make the cream. I don't do much fancy decoration. I would put some icing monogram or fresh fruit.

When it comes to treating my friends, I always pick my best. So I made a chocolate cream ganache cake to Joan's house when she cooked her famous Hok Kian Mee for all of us. This I used Valrhona 60% chocolate. I leave the verdict to those who tried my cake. What's important is that we had a great time together and I liked the cake ;>