These ideas are suitable for uniced chocolate cake.
Cake Crumb Truffles
Chocolate cake crumbs make a delicious truffle mixture when moistened with liqueur, strong cold coffee or orange juice. Add the liquid a little at a time until the mixture can be pressed into a firm ball between the fingers. Roll into small balls, refrigerate until firm and roll in sifted cocoa powder or dip into melted chocolate.
Vanilla or peppermint essence, finely-grated orange rind, liqueur-soaked raisins and other additions can also be added before rolling. Alternatively, the mixture can be pressed around a glace cherry to make a larger truffle. Sprinkling flaked almonds over chocolate-dipped truffles gives a gourmet touch.
Making “Pastry” Bases for Frozen Desserts
Frozen pies such as Chocolate Bavarian often use a base made with crushes biscuits. Cake crumbs mixed with melted butter or liqueur can be pressed into the base and sides of a pie dish or springform tin for a delicious alternative. Cake-crumb bases may also be used for continental cheesecakes, but not baked (New York-style).
Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding
For a decadent, ultra-rich version of bread and butter pudding substitute stale, toasted slices of chocolate cake for the bread slices.
Flowerpots
Food blogger Pioneer Woman (Ree Drummond) uses Oreo cookies to make the soil for her whimsical flowerpot desserts, but cake crumbs could be substituted. The recipe can be adapted to include any kind of ice cream, mousse or frozen dessert. Circles of cake are placed at the bottom of the flowerpots, which are then filled with ice cream, topped with cake crumbs and decorated with real or artificial flowers.
Chocolate cake crumbs also make useful “dirt” for various cake decorating projects. Kept in the freezer in a ziplock bag, they can be sprinkled or piled on cakes to represent dirt in a bulldozer cake for a boy, garden beds for a spring-themed cake or even the fur on a grizzly bear cake.
Chocolate Trifle
Chocolate cake can be substituted for sponge cake or Madeira in most trifle recipes. The chocolate cake can be teamed with raspberry jam, Tia Maria or orange liqueur. A regular custard base can be used or substituted with a chocolate pudding recipe.
Chocolate Pudding
Lay slices of cake in a small casserole dish, cover with custard or chocolate sauce and heat through for a quick pudding. This refreshes and moistens stale cake.
Fancy Ice Cream
A tub of vanilla ice cream can be jazzed up with the addition of small cubes of chocolate cake. Add Kirsch, drained maraschino cherries and grated chocolate to make Black Forest Gateau ice cream.
Freezing Chocolate Cake
Slices of leftover chocolate cake can be individually wrapped in gladwrap and frozen to pull out as a quick lunchbox snack.
Sarah Tennant - Sarah Tennant is a onetime English major who lives in New Zealand with her husband and two small children. Her interests range from ...
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