Just wanted to thank the many CC'ers who offered advice to me on issues related to my flourless chocolate cake for a bridal shower. Between trying to figure out whether or not I could torte the cake (or perhaps bake it in two smaller layers) and a crisis involving chocolate fondant, it all worked out and I was thrilled w/the results. I am so excited, I wanted to share the final cake.
For the record, I torted the cake using the wilton 10" torting tool, the one that is like a thin wire. I heated it over the stove, dragged it thru a bit of the cake till it resisted, reheated it (after wiping off the choc stuck to it), dragged it thru again, etc. etc, till finally the darn thing was torted. Amazing. DO NOT attempt to torte one of these w/a knife! I did (was getting tired of the wire thing) and it totally cracked - a knife is too thick. But the ganache icing glued it back together easily.
So again, thank you thank you THANK YOU! Seriously, I studied the open-box cakes on this site for days until I convinced myself I could do it, and all of the tips people gave me, combined w/the kind instructions so many CC'ers post w/their cakes (fondant lids, chocolate molds, "tissue paper" - every element of the cake!)...all gave me the tools I needed to make a cake I could be proud of. Yay!
Very beautiful!
How did you make a "flourless" cake?
Adorable and very creative. How did you do the tools?
Thanks everyone! I was really pleased with how it came out and found that it wasnt' as hard to wrap a cake in fondant as I'd feared (this is only my 4th cake!) and doing the lid wasn't too bad either. Whew!
I ran out of space in my descriptions (in my photos) to thank boween for the inspiration from her kitchen shower cake. The kitchen tools were made from a "baking set" candy mold using Wilton candy melts; since I haven't made choc. molds before there was no WAY I was going to try tempering. I painted them w/black Americolor (which I had to mix w/some "fondant icing" from a tube cuz food coloring won't stick to chocolate...I discovered this after the fact of course) and dusted w/silver luster dust (ditto on the sticking problem - had to paint them w/fondant icing first..there is probably a better way). I also mixed some silver IN w/a greyer black to get a calphalon look on the muffin pan.
I told people at the party, the tools are technically edible but w/the amount of luster dust and food coloring on them, I don't think *I* would eat them! Plus I think that candy melt stuff tastes awful - I am a chocolate purist myself. So I took them home after the party to save for my next cake 
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As for the cake, it was the "Flourless Choc. Cake I" recipe from allrecipes. The bride is allergic to gluten, and I wanted a gluten free "normal" cake , i.e. one that was meant to taste fabulous as opposed to a GF converted recipe. They don't rise AT ALL so you have to be prepared for a flat cake. I was actually going to put it on a styrofoam dummy and wrap the whole thing to give it height, but had a last-minute snafu so I left it as is.
What's funny is, I took the lid home too. I can't imagine re-using it (how likely am I to do another cake in those colors?) but I couldn't bear to just throw it in the trash!
You did an amazing job right down to the tools and the tissue paper
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