Chocz Sacher

Unfortunately, I had bought this cake together with the Chocolate Truffle from Chocz at marine parade on the same day. That cake was dissapointment. What about this one? This is the Sacher, as says the letters inscribed in glaze atop the cake.

Woosh, the plastic wrap peels off under my nose, taking off a chunk of glaze with it. Usually at the shop the reflection from transparent plastic prevents us from getting an accurate picture of the surface texture of the cake. Now without the clothes, we can see properly :P

The internal appearance is that of a very dense cake, filled with lots of nuts chocolatey goodness. There was a description for the cake at the counter, "Swiss Chocolate with Hazelnut Sponge, Apricot Compote and Almond Cookies." I gave the cake a sniff and inhaled lots of splendid chocolate molecules.

Once more, I *chomp chomp chomped* into the cake and the first thing that greeted my tongue was that very same acidic, acrid, tobacco-like glaze. Its the exact same glaze from its brother cake, the Chocolate Truffle. And hidden beneath this layer again is that very same ganache layer from the Chocolate Truffle which had an unpleasantly raw peanut oil flavour. These 2 layers only make up 0.5mm of the cake, but their flavour dominates the entire cake. They caused discord among the cells of my olfactory bulb which immediately released fantic impulses that generated a frown upon my face.


And so I scrapped off the ganache and the glaze, leaving just the plain cake and biscuit crust below for a second chance. The cake itself was moderately moist, quite generous in nuts, but had the lingering flavour of benzaldehyde. Benzaldehyde is naturally found in almonds but once you cross a certain threshold, it doesn't taste like natural anymore. I think there was also a hint of cherry in the flavour. Then squeezed below the cake was thin lining of apricot compote - a pleasant addition that and went quite well with the crunchy buttery base.

Nonetheless, the dark chocolate glaze and ganache were horrible, potent enough to stauch all supply of dopamine. Not shiok. I think stress hormones were released instead.
Shiokness Score: 0/10
I wonder, if there's an apple that was good on one side, but had a huge bruise on the other, would you still buy it? This cake costs $7.00.

Chocz
#B1-83P Parkway Parade
Tel: 6345 0181
http://www.chocz.com.sg/

Chocz Chocolate Truffle

Chocz's main line of products is chocolates and so I thought since they do chocolates they would naturally be good at chocolate cakes. I must say I have never tried chocz before today, and this is their first chocolate product I'm trying. Anyhow, there was a description for the cake, which went "Swiss Chocolate Ganache with chocolate sponge".

Off goes the wrap, and we see 3 layers of airy chocolate sponge, and also 3 layers of ganache. The topmost layer of ganache is actually hidden beneath the shiny dark chocolate glaze.


And then perched right on top was a ball of tempered chocolate, sealed at the middle from 2 smaller halves. I thought there might be a surprise inside, but it turned out to be hollow. The ball was chocolate but had cardboardy notes that were a mismatch for the flavour profile of chocolate.

So *munch* *munch* down layer by layer before *munching* the cake as a whole. It was a huge major major major dissapointment. The dark chocolate glaze was acidic, mildly acrid, with an unpleasant cigarette-water kind of flavour. Then the ganache tasted of cooking oil, either canola or peanut, but more likely peanut. It was the raw kind of vegetable oil flavour that I tasted before in oil that has not yet been cooked. Both the glaze and the ganache acted in synchrony and destroyed the entire cake. The sponge, on the borderline between being moist and dry, crumbled into tiny granules in the mouth that disrupted the smooth texture of the chocolate. When all the layers were eaten together as one, the acridness from the glaze and the raw oil note from the ganache took over and I somehow found my eyebrows twitching uncontrollably. I didn't finish the Chocolate Truffle. Not more than 1/4 of the slice.



I don't know what to say. Isn't chocz supposed to specialise in chocolates? The cardboardy taste of the hollow chocolate ball is still in my head.



Shiokness Verdict: 0/10

This cake cost $6.00. I don't think I'll be touching it again.

Chocz
#B1-83P Parkway Parade
Tel: 6345 0181
http://www.chocz.com.sg/