Sweet Melissa Sundays - Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Torte

Sweet Melissa Sundays, what imagination has everyone brought with her OR him for today? I am sooo curious!

I played, I admit it. A rich, chocolate, dense dessert with a layer of bright red, juicy raspberries calls for emergency intervention. I have blisters on my feet from wearing the cute shoes instead of the walking shoes when hubby and I walked 5 miles around the neighborhood yesterday evening; I do not want to limp on the treadmill because I ate a HUGE serving of this decadent dessert.

(Sigh), yeppers, the Myers dark rum WAS added in "but" I cut the dessert in half. The problem was: Do I put this in "two" 4-inch springform pans or (1)? I decided on two 4-inch pans so my little truffles were not beamingly thick. The red raspberry sauce on page 176 was a necessary addition and really added a layer of sweet/tart flavor to the chocolate raspberry truffle torte.

I felt the dessert needed a special plate so out came the painter's palate plate. My first time using the plate and so, of course, the raspberry sauce had to be the medium.

Jennifer, this dessert rocked the house! Great job for your choice and for hosting! Go to Jennifer's blog The Rookie Baker for the recipe AND to check out her magnificent chocolate raspberry truffle torte. We have 52 bakers in our SMS group and what a fun, talented group we all are! Take a little you time and see how the rest of us played with this dessert . . . Click here (You know you want too.)

I have JUST GOT TO ADD a note about me finding and falling head-over-heels for a NEW grocery store (new to me) aimed toward organic everything called Metropolitan (a whole 25 minutes from my house). I did not love the prices for a half/pint of yellow raspberries, $5.99 and I did not love the fact they bagged said raspberries on their side so when I got them home, half of the contents were mashed. I did ooh and ahh over every aisle but the cat and dog food aisle. They had homemade plain yogurt with a layer of cream on top for heaven's SAKE! (I bought a pint of the yogurt.) A sign was up to order caviar a day in advance and you could get any grade (for a price =) . . . ). The fresh baked breads was amazing, the kitchen gadget section had me hunting in circles several times to keep from missing anything . . . bright colors, shapes and they all screamed "take me home", and I did (okay, the melon baller was a necessary purchase). Freshly made caramelized onion dip, baked white corn tortilla chips, balsamic soaked small white onions, frozen wild huckleberries, freshly made pappardelle pasta in the refrigerator section (made at a small company out of Seattle), freshly smoked wild salmon, and whole wheat/dried cranberry thin crackers all found my mini cart. So FUN!

Happy baking everyone!!!! =0)