Chocolate Cake Sand Roses Style (with Valrhona Komuntu)

A few months ago, I had the joy of being contacted by Valrhona to be part of the group of people who would choose the new chocolate specially crafted to celebrate the brand's 100th anniversary: after various stages of voting for the name, the visual, and of course the chocolate itself, I was introduced to Komuntu chocolate, a dark chocolate with 80% cocoa content, which I used to make a recipe: a cake, of course! A somewhat elaborate cake for the occasion, with a very crunchy texture thanks to the filling and the decoration in sand roses. If you want to learn more about this chocolate, you can find it here; if you want to taste this chocolate, the link to order it with a promo code is just below; otherwise, just scroll down for the recipe!

Equipment:
Cake mold

Ingredients:
The Komuntu chocolate that you can order here, with a 20% discount using the code ILETAITUGATEAU + the free Valrhona 100th anniversary recipe booklet for any order over 60€ before October 2.

Preparation time: 1 hour + 1 hour of baking + minimum 3 hours of cooling/crystallization
For a 20cm cake - serves 6 to 8:

Chocolate and almond cake:

90g softened butter
A pinch of salt
115g granulated sugar
The zest of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon of instant coffee
2 large eggs
70g almond flour
145g chocolate
70g flour
5g baking powder
15g cocoa powder
75g heavy cream
145g whole milk
35g slivered almonds

Mix the softened butter with the salt, sugar, lemon zest, and instant coffee.
Add the eggs one at a time, whisking after each addition.
Incorporate the almond flour, then the melted chocolate.
Sift the flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder, then add them to the previous mixture.
Finish by incorporating the cream, milk, and almonds.
Pour into the pre-greased insert cake mold, then bake in a preheated oven at 165°C for 1 hour.
Remove from the oven, let cool for a few minutes, then remove the insert tube and unmold the cake onto a rack.

Crispy almond and chocolate filling:

25g dark chocolate
35g almond puree
15g slivered almonds
25g lace crepes

Melt the chocolate, then add the almond puree. Incorporate the crumbled lace crepes, then fill the cake with the crispy mixture and let it crystallize.

Chocolate glaze:

250g dark chocolate
60g neutral oil like grapeseed oil

Melt the chocolate, then add the oil. When the glaze is at 35°C, pour it over the cake placed on a rack, then let it crystallize.

Sand roses:

60g water
95g sugar
60g slivered almonds
5g butter
20g cornflakes
70g chocolate
10g crispy pearls

Bring the water and sugar to a boil. Immerse the almonds in it for 2 minutes, then drain.
Spread them on a sheet of parchment paper then bake in the preheated oven at 180°C for 10 minutes, stirring halfway through. Remove from the oven, add the butter and mix. Let cool, then add the tempered chocolate. Form small mounds on a sheet of parchment paper, then add the crispy pearls on top. Once the sand roses have crystallized, add them to the cake.