Sarah Bernhardt Chocolate Glaze

This is a recipe from a class I took from Alice Medrich in 1996, author of the book “Cocolat” it is now the only chocolate icing I ever use. It is rich and delicious. Can be poured as a glaze or allowed to set and spread on cake with a spatula. When set it can be used for borders, piping and writing but may be too soft for making roses. Tips on this icing- I make 2 separate recipes, allow the first one to set up to the consistency of canned chocolate fudge icing, use it to make the dam of icing between layers, for the border and for crumb coating the cake. The second batch of icing is only allowed to set up to pouring stage, about the consistency of Hershey’s bottled chocolate ice cream syrup. Crumb coat as evenly as possible with the first batch of icing, allow the cake to set for about 10 minutes at room temperature. Then set cake (already on a cake cardboard) on a cooling rack with waxed or parchment paper under the rack to catch drips. Pour all of the glaze into the center of the cake and allow to run down sides, you can coax it down the sides by jiggling the cake board up and down. If there are any run marks in the set glaze you can smooth them out by running a hot hair dryer back and forth over the marks, only until it begins to get shiny. Any longer in any one spot it will begin to liquify. Let set at room temperature, if you must refrigerate cake allow at least one hour for it to come to room temperature before serving. To answer your question in advance about substituting white chocolate or milk chocolate chips in this recipe, it just doesn’t work. White chocolate will never set up completely, it will be sticky. Milk chocolate will get too thick and heavy.