A Slight Divergence...

[Rob] Two nights ago Ken and Jeannie from Bayou Seco came by to help us cut some cheese for a cheese party. Jeannie had made a chestnut cake and shared a smaller version with us - the larger version will make its appearance at the cheese party. Between that chestnut cake and the pastry shops in Chicago I am in orgasmic overload to get back to the kitchen.

Recently on EGullet a poster had asked about savory additions to chocolate. This is not a new concept - salt, curry, lavender, etc. are all commonplace these days. But someone had mentioned Thyme. So today I picked the infant flowering heads from our garden Thyme and set to work. I decided to push the concept even further so I made a dark chocolate olive oil cake. And thinking it a good marriage, I used our O brand California Mission Olive and Organic Clementine Olive Oil. And as Tyler is always telling me, I can't leave any dessert simple, so I topped it with a Cluizel chocolate square set in cinnamon whipped cream. I filled the center with Pierre Herme's outstanding recipe for chocolate pastry cream. The result - Torta di Cioccolato di Olio di Oliva e Timo: