Sweet/Salty Cake.....

Happy Thanksgiving!! Let's talk about dessert first. Today just happens to be my lovely spouse's 44th birthday, in addition to Thanksgiving. So, its a great reason to have a party. We had some friends/family over tonight to celebrate both occasions. I always like to make Robin a special cake for her birthday. When I read about this new cookbook just out, I went searching for this recipe( its over on marthastewart.com). This cake is called Salty/Sweet cake and it was amazing. But, OMG, it was over the top rich and fattening. You dont even want to know that the whipped caramel ganach contains 1 lb of butter and chocolate. Not to mention the heavy cream in the frosting and caramel. But, Omg, was it good. The sweet part is obvious, but the salty part is pretty cool. The caramel between the layers contains a full tsp of fleur de sel. The top of the cake is sprinkled with more salt. For that, I used some flower of the ocean salt that my friend from High School( omg, has it been almost 25yrs since I graduated?) sent me. Celtic Salt is a company in Asheville, NC. They have some amazing salts!! In addition to salts, they have herb blends and other cool products. Check them out for some great gift ideas. Let me tell you, The salt totally makes this cake. Its the perfect foil for the sweet caramel and ganache. Yummy!! I'm going to be dreaming about this cake, I swear.

I baked the 3 layers over the weekend and froze them. I made the caramel filling on Tuesday and the ganache frosting( ingenious method) today. I filled and frosted the entire cake while it was still frozen and that was a great idea. It was hot in the house because I was cooking the turkey, but the chill from the frozen cake, helped the ganache firm up. By the time I served it, it was totally defrosted. Just make sure you sprinkle the salt on right before serving.