I find a great amount of difficulty in slicing cakes, particularly rich, dense, almost fudge-like chocolate cakes. I used to have difficulty slicing foie gras torchon, that is until I began using a wire cheese slicer to do the work for me. My difficulty in slicing these dense cakes is more a reflection of laziness. I hate having to dip my knife in hot water, dry it, make a slice, and repeat the process. Also, in heating the knife in water, it causes the chocolate or foie gras to melt just a bit, and I do not like that result. Because of my own frustrations with slicing, I opted to have the ingredients work for me.
We began with a dense chocolate butter cake. (Its texture, funny enough, is like foie gras torchon.) I then pressed the cake through a fine sieve to break down its structure. Once the cake was fragmented, I pressed it back together and molded it in the style of foie gras torchon. I let the cake set overnight and am able to serve it this evening. The key is that I can use my cheese slicer to make clean slices without having to heat a knife or melt the chocolate. We are serving the chocolate torchon with sandy pecans, anise hyssop, mango-rose tea puree, and ground rose hips.
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