Chocolate Apricot Roll with Lacquer Glaze

Ta Da! After much procrastination the Chocolate Apricot Roll with Lacquer Glaze is here, thanks to Raymond and Faithy.

I procrastinated all weekend and decided against making it. It sounded complicated. It sounded extremely sweet. It sounded almost too chocolate-ly. My nemesis also lurked within the recipe, namely folding in flour. After reading Raymond's and Faithy's posts late Sunday night, there was no way I could not make this cake.

I understood Rose's explanation for creating this cake; chocolate dipped apricots are a Christmas treat for us courtesy of relatives who still live in the midst of central California's farmland. Each year, the most delectible box of glaceed jumbo apricots, half dipped in dark chocolate, the other half in white chocolate, are sent up north by my aunt, along with chocolate covered jumbo muscat raisins. It's always our favorite things to unwrap!

http://www.garrypacking.com/confections.html

http://www.sunmaid.com/

Levkar sounded intriguing. It was fun cooking it up, sort of in the lemon curd category. It is delicious stuff. While it was cooling, I whipped up the syrup and then the ganache. The cake went together surprisingly easy. I used the whisk beater instead of a spatula for folding in the flour and it was much easier. With the cake baked and cooling, I faced the Lacquer dilemma, gelatin or agar? That was the question.

Being vegetarian, not vegan, just run of the mill lacto-ovo, I couldn't bring myself to use gelatin, not even for Rose. Having no idea if agar would work, I substituted an even amount, following the same instructions. It seemed to work but quite a lot did not dissolve and was left in the strainer. The lacquer didn't seem any worse for wear and drew loads of oooh's and ahhh's. Except I missed the step of getting it to the serving platter properly.

It's a show stopper cake but not as flavorful as I was anticipating. Everyone who tasted it is of the same opinion, except eldest granddaughter. She loves it and can discern every flavor but she has an ultra sensitive palette. I tease her she should grow up to be a professional taste tester.

(That's her "painting" the syrup)

Baking this cake had the potential to nail me to the wall. And it would have except for the HCB'ers. Being able to read everyone's posts while baking spurred me on to keep going, give it a try. I'm so glad I did. This recipe taught me a great deal. I'll make it again, adding spice, maybe orange zest to the cake batter for a bit more flavor.