Heavenly Cake - Chocolate Apricot Roll

ב''ה

"נֶזֶם זָהָב בְּאַף חֲזִיר, אִשָּׁה יָפָה וְסָרַת טָעַם"
–משלי יא, כב


-"A beautiful women without taste or brains is like a pretty gold-nose-ring in the snout of a  swine."
-Proverbs 11:22

It may look O.K. but this cake did not turn out very well for me. I was way too goopy in the middle and too rich. It also had some kind of funny "off" taste (almost metallic) that I am not sure exactly the cause of though there are a few things that may have caused it. I did make a few mistakes that I will enumerate.

I made this cake over a period of three nights. Lekvar, ganache and then cake.

Process the cooked apricots. There was other food on the stove (must defer to the Mrs...) so I could not get to the apricots when I was supposed to.

You are supposed to put it back in the pot to reduce but since it had already cooked for an extra 15 - 20  minutes I realized that it was already at the desired color and consistency. Hey, not bad! However, the taste did not seem uniform. Some of the lekvar was sweet while some of it was more tangy. It may just be that our apricots were too old or just not all the same sweetness. This is one of the things that may have contributed to the off taste.

Mistake number 2:

I used regular sugar instead of superfine. Whoops! I think this hurt the texture and flavor of the cake. Here is the flour sifting the flour on the liquid mixture. 

Spread it out. I made this cake parve.

The Rich Whip available now in all the stores in my neck of the woods is the kosher for Passover version. Perhaps it is what caused the ganache to be cloyingly rich. I may have also used too much chocolate or it could have been 2 1/2 ounces of 72% cocoa chocolate that I mixed with the lower quality in an attempt to give it some oomph.

The ganache and lekvar.

Looks pretty but... looks can be deceiving...

The 1/2 cup of the lekvar did not seem to cover the whole cake. I should have attempted to spread it thinner. Instead I just used an extra 1/3 cup of it. 

I used a little over a cup of the ganache.

Getting ready for the lacquer glaze. I wonder why Rose says to use a metal "bowl?" What's wrong with plastic?

Mistake number 3. I should have used real kojel - kosher gelatin. I found this unflavored kosher jello in the store and figured, it's got collagen, what more do you need? Real Kojel and a thermometer apparently! The jel did not dissolve completely and also had a funny taste.

Mistake number 4. I ate the left over ganache before realizing that you were supposed to spread some on to make the glaze look even...

Glossy? Yes!

Take a guess at the temperature, add the unflavored gel and mix...

 Pour on:

Was it glossy? Yes. Was it pretty? Yes (if you can ignore my bad photography...,) but it was like a beautiful women without "taste."