Reine de Saba Cake - A Preview

This past weekend, I braved a new recipe: Reine de Saba, or Queen of Sheba, cake from Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

If you've been following along for a while now, you'll know that the only other Julia recipe I've attempted (and mastered, if I do say so) is Boeuf Bourguignon.  Yum.  So I figured it was around time to try my hand at a new one!

Check out my post on Monday at Our Krazy Kitchen to see the full recipe and walk-through.  But there aren't a whole lot of pictures because the recipe is already so long.  So here's some of those pictures which I so painstakingly took!

One major ingredient is pulverized almonds, which you need to add sugar to while pulverizing in order to keep the oils in the nuts from making everything sticky and clumpy.

 Melted chocolate is added to egg yolks, butter, sugar and almonds to make the base of the batter.

 Then stiffly-whipped eggs whites and a bit of flour are carefully folded in.

Once the cake is baked and cooled, it's time to make that frosting.  It consists of...wait for it...butter and chocolate.  I cringe even as a swoon.  It's a difficult duality.

Sliced almonds and chocolate shavings were used to decorate.

 Just...mmmm...the texture was incredible - light yet rich and moist.  So amazing!

It's a time-consuming effort but so well worth it!

Join us at OKK on Monday to get the full scoop!