Caramel Chocolate Cake with Fleur de Sel Praline

So for my friend's birthday, Jon and I made Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel and Fleur de Sel Praline. It was significantly less complicated than Nehama's birthday cake (which I will post about soon), it only took a 2-3 hours total, but was fun because it was my first time (successfully) making pralines or ganoche . I need a camera, since I lost mine somehow when we moved, and have been taking pictures using my phone's cam.



Big issues:

• The ganoche: formerchef's ganoche appeared to be much stiffer, more like an icing even. Mine was liquidey, despite having refrigerated it overnight. I know there is more intricacy to ganoche, and I'd like to get it to hold its form better.
• This is a very salty recipe, I would leave some out. Gotta watch that blood press.
• The batter is very wet, and Jon decided to initially forgo lining the cake pans with parchment paper. Do it! It leaked through, made a mess. We recovered mostly, but our cakes were significantly thinner than I would have liked. That being said, you add a ton of leavener using this recipe, and it really does puff up. 
• We used Folger's Instant as the "espresso mix." It worked like a champ.
• The cake will melt at room temp, that's no lie. Store cautiously chilled.

Cakes before assembly

Ganoche. This was right after it came out of the fridge, and it became significantly more loose than this as time progressed

Caramel filling. It becomes much thicker after refrigeration

Fleur de sel praline. Simple and quick.

More praline. That is salt inside of it. Gives it a nice textured appearance

The final cake

Close-up of the cake

As time progressed, the ganoche melted a bit, dissolving some of the finer bits of praline as well as taking on a more liquid appearance.