Gateau St Emilion

Really funny, this one. I have never heard of this dessert before, but I came across the recipe in the back of a magazine associated with a popular Sunday tabloid newspaper.  No mention in the recipe of the fact that this was a classic French dessert. Just a basic recipe. I give it a go. It's a sublimely light concoction of dark chocolate, cream, sugar, egg white...it sits in the fridge for hours and hours and when it is ready, you soak crushed amaretti biscuits in a teaspoonful of rum and then scatter the dampened shards over the top. The result is unbelievable. I can't understand how a creation of such finesse could find its way into the supplement of one of the scuzziest tabloid newspapers in the Northern hemisphere. When I hear Michel Roux refer to the St Emilion in the context of a discussion about fine dining I am even more suprised. But then, I have become an enormous cake snob since I upped my game on baking. I've steadily been climbing the wall of baking ambition. Just a few years ago a decent sponge cake would have been cause for celebration. Looking back at 2013 the most notable factor of my baking profile is that I haven't produced a single sponge cake all year. I've been too busy perfecting my frangipane, my tangy lemon and white chocolate tart, my sweet pastry technique. I've turned out extraordinary triple chocolate layers, raspberry poundcakes, Eastern European krantzcakes etc...well, if you've been following this blog you'll know the score. And it's not like I've been waiting for the ultimate dinner party occasion to launch these baking creations. Most have been snarfed down by my generally undiscriminating family. So, the appearance of a fabulous French classic at the back of an indifferent Sunday supplement emboldens me to serve it up at the Christmas lunch party at my house for all my work colleagues. Normally for a mass catering challenge, complicated by the amount of champagne and mulled wine that would have been imbibed by the time dessert was reached, I would aim for a mass crowd pleaser. Chocolate mousse, chocolate pudding, tiramisu. So I am taking a risk. But it's one worth going for - these are lovely people who have made me very welcome in my new job, so on the table it goes. And there are oohs and aahs and people linger over it, and it becomes the subject of office legend in a very short space of time. So there you have it. A St Emilion is for every lunch. Not just for Christmas.