Mogador Cake

We made the Mogador cake on Monday. Apparently it's one of the classic French cakes, although I've yet to find where the name comes from... As far as I know, Mogador the place is a city in Morocco, and Mogador the dessert is a cake flavored with chocolate genoise, raspberry jam, and chocolate mousse.

I'm proud of my marzipan rose for this cake (it looks like a rose!), although the leaves turned out a little funky. Marzipan is a lot stickier and softer than plastic chocolate, so the leaves wilted in the heat. The star design might look familiar since I used the same tip for the Moka cake, I think I just like the whimsical look on cakes. (Update: after having made a pistachio chocolate log with flowering branches and a chocolate hazelnut cake with acorn-shaped truffles, I can definitely say that I'm a fan of whimsical designs).

The chef's designs during the demonstration on Saturday were more traditional. I especially like the tempered chocolate pieces added for height. The gold leaf doesn't hurt, either.

This is my favorite cake out of the five. The dark chocolate and gold leaf really adds nice contrast to the red background, and it's got such a luxurious feel to it. I may not like the style, but I can still appreciate it : ) 

Unfortunately, the cake doesn't taste as good as it looks. The chocolate genoise and the chocolate mousse are quite good, but the imbibing syrup and raspberry jam are way too sugary. In fact, I've taken to diluting the syrup with water to cut down on the sweetness. Adding some lemon juice to the raspberry jam wouldn't hurt either...