Tags: Chocolate Our Anniversary Our Wedding Sweet Tooth
Adrian and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary last month. Eight years…seems like a long time, but it’s flown by! I feel like we’re still newlyweds. I still think he’s the most handsome man on the planet (his big dark eyes, beautiful smile and broad shoulders *swoon*), I still get butterflies when I catch him looking at me, and I still want to spend every waking moment with him! Does that ever go away? I sure hope not. I’m head-over-heels in love with that man and I want to stay this way forever!!
We don’t usually make a big fuss for our anniversary. We’ll do cards and such, but that’s the extent—we try to make special moments all year long instead of just one day a year. Like everything else, we plan our anniversary around the food we’re going to eat (what can I say…we’re a foodie family!) Our lunch/dinner plans are made in advance and we count down the days with great anticipation. We also always include the boys in our anniversary plans. They go out with us and it’s very much a “family” celebration. Some people may think that’s strange—most think wedding anniversaries are supposed to be all champagne and steamy romance—but I like the fact that they’re a part of it. I think it’s important to show them that we value our marriage and the vows we made to each other. It’s something to celebrate and I want them to celebrate with us because the survival of our marriage means the survival of our precious family unit.
Side Note: Plus, you also must remember that we’ve lived away from our family and friends since Liev was born. We’ve also never stayed in one place long enough to meet someone we’d trust our kids with. Now that we are near people we’d trust with our kids, the anxiety kicks in if we even think about leaving them Haha!! I don’t worry about it. I remember tagging along with my parents on all their anniversary celebrations. They’d go to Monterey, to Carmel, to San Francisco; I’d always tag along. Of course, now that I’m grown and they celebrate on their own, it’s all three-week trips to Ireland and England…thanks guys!! *pouty face*
This is the first year that Liev understood what we were celebrating. I have our wedding photos in an album, and he’s seen them many times. But prior to this year, they were just photos of dad looking fancy and mom wearing a princess dress…our wedding never meant anything else to him. He was more concerned with the fact that he wasn’t at “that party”! This year, however, he was able to grasp the significance of the event and understand why we celebrate. Silas was just there for the food…he gets that from me!
One tradition we do have is celebrating with a flourless chocolate cake.
OUR WEDDING CAKE
When I was planning our wedding, I was very firm on what I wanted for our wedding cake. I’d been to numerous weddings whose cakes basically all tasted the same. I get it, taste probably takes a back seat to presentation. Everything has to look just right. I also understand that the cake you taste at the bakery when choosing your cake isn’t what you end up with at the reception. Those are usually freshly baked that day or the day before, whereas the cake that arrives at your reception was baked four, sometimes five, days prior. I knew I didn’t want that for my wedding.
Long story short, I knew these important things:
- I wanted to break away from the traditional wedding cake.
- I wanted something different and unexpected.
- I wanted to incorporate Adrian’s tastes into the cake.
- Adrian’s not a sweet eater.
- But…he loves chocolate!
With that in mind, I decided to go with a flourless chocolate cake…it was also my way of combining Adrian’s love of chocolate and my love of ooey gooey desserts. Now, with the flavor idea nailed down, I just needed to settle on the look of the cake.
Cupcake wedding cakes were all the rage when we got married, and while I thought it was clever, I wanted to take that idea a step further. Instead of everyone getting a cupcake, I decided each guest would enjoy their own individual mini tiered wedding cake. Since we had a book/literature theme running through our wedding I wanted to tie the cakes in by making them little ink pots…complete with feather quills.
Our individual, mini, tiered, flourless chocolate wedding cakes were A HIT!! To this day I still have people commenting on how those little guys stole the show. They were amazing! They were served with a delicious raspberry sauce which just took them from delicious to mind-blowingly delicious. I was over the moon with the way those cakes came out.
**Our baker even made us a full on three-tiered cake for the cake cutting…complete with false bottoms. She seriously thought of everything!
OUR ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY
For our one-year anniversary, we went back to the winery where we got married and had lunch. It was fun being back there and reminiscing on our beautiful wedding day. But the cherry on top of our one-year anniversary lunch was the flourless chocolate anniversary cake our baker made us. It was such an amazing way to celebrate our first wedding anniversary…lunch at the winery and a replica cake for dessert.
That anniversary cake prompted us to start a new tradition. While we haven’t been in California to visit the winery for any of our subsequent wedding anniversaries, we’ve kept the flourless chocolate cake alive no matter where we’ve been. Each year I make a flourless chocolate cake to celebrate our wedding anniversary. It’s my way of incorporating our special day into our anniversary each year. Cause, HELLO…it’s not like I can get back into my wedding dress for the celebration…two kids and eight years of lavish anniversary dinners and flourless chocolate cakes later makes THAT impossible!!
Here’s the recipe I use…I’ve tweaked it over the years and will probably continue to do so, but this version is pretty perfect. I also should warn you that this is NOT for the faint of heart. You can’t cut a huge slice, sit down and expect to polish your plate. This is a “take 2-3 bites and cure your chocolate cravings for months” kinda cake.
Aren’t those the best cakes anyway?!
CHOCOLATE ANNIVERSARY CAKE
- ⅓ cup water
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 stick unsalted butter, cubed
- 12 oz. bittersweet chocolate, at least 60% cacao (chocolate is the star here so use the best chocolate you can!)
- 1 tsp instant espresso powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ⅓ cup cold brewed (strong) coffee
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 6 eggs
Preheat oven to 325°
Thoroughly grease a 9×2-inch round cake pan. Line bottom with parchment paper.
Whisk eggs in a bowl until thoroughly combined. Set aside.
Combine water and sugar in a small saucepan over med-high heat. Once it starts to boil, turn down heat and let simmer until sugar is fully dissolved.
Add butter, chocolate, espresso powder and salt. Stir until smooth.
Stir in coffee and vanilla.
Slowly pour in eggs and whisk mixture until smooth.
Pour mixture into prepared pan, place pan inside large roasting pan, and add warm water to roasting pan until it comes half way up the outside of the cake pan.
Bake 40-45 minutes until center is set and no longer jiggling.
Remove the cake pan and set on cooling rack to cool 1 hour.
Run a paring knife all along the edge and then invert onto a platter or cake stand.
(I used a biscuit cutter to cut out “his and hers” mini cakes…trying to be fancy! haha!!)
Let cool to room temperature before serving (allowing some time in the fridge to completely cool and firm up is preferred, but you’ll have to bring it back to room temperature before serving)
Serve with berries, a sauce of some sort, whipped cream, ice cream, toasted almonds, or just a spoon. Any way you eat it, it’ll be gooooooooood!
