TWD: Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake

As you all know, this month we are allowed to post the recipes in any order we like. For this week, I chose the Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake, chosen by Katya of Second Dinner (love the name of the blog, by the way :D ). I have two words to describe this cake: messy, and delicious.
This cake is interesting, because it uses two quite unusual ingredients. First up is sweetened chestnut spread. I was imagining a light-colored, sweet spread. Yeah, not so much. It is very dark and I personally didn't like it very much plain. Second is jarred chestnuts. We decided to go for the bags, but the nuts ended up being darker than what I've seen on other blogs and in the book. Oh well!

Let me just say one thing: this cake takes the day to make. Well, that is, if you're like me, where you make everything in one day. First I made the glaze, which had to sit for four hours! That was quick and easy. Then I made the caramel chocolate ganache. It wasn't too hard to make, although it took a while for my caramel to brown. It was supposed to refrigerate overnight, but I hadn't thought about that, so mine only refrigerated for a few hours. Therefore, it was hard to spread because it was quickly melting. The cake was pretty simple to make. My only complaint was that it was very crumbly (although that could be due to the fact that it was still a bit warm when I stacked the layers). I was only able to cut it into two layers, and they broke apart when I picked them up. However, I was able to piece them together, and the finished product was delicious and went fast.

I highly recommend this recipe for anybody who has some free time and wants a great cake. Even my mom, who doesn't like chestnuts, liked this. If you want this recipe, you can find it on Katya's blog, or you can buy the book. Enjoy!