TWD: Cinnamon Squares

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When I first read through this week's TWD recipe, I pretty much knew that it wasn't going to be a favorite. Tracey from Tracey's Culinary Adventures chose Dorie's Cinnamon Squares for this week's assignment. Cinnamon Squares start out as a dense, butter-rich cake which is laden with cinnamon and bittersweet chocolate. Lots of cinnamon and chocolate! While I like them both a lot on their own, I'm not a big fan of cinnamon and chocolate combined. Still, I've been wrong before and made this cake anyway, hoping for the best.

Sorry folks, it's just not for me.

The cake didn't taste bad. In fact, it was actually pretty good. But, there was just way too much cinnamon in it for my comfort zone. Adding nine ounces of bittersweet chocolate to the mix didn't help much either. The whole thing was just too rich and strong for me. That said, If you're someone who really enjoys a pronounced, in-your-face cinnamon and chocolate flavor combination, you will probably love this cake. I think I would have probably enjoyed this one more without the dark chocolate. If I decide to attempt the cake again, I might try using white chocolate or a nice orange glaze instead. And, I definitely would cut down on the cinnamon.

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Another interesting phenomena I encountered was that, shortly after I removed this cake from the oven, it sank in the middle like a lead balloon! It looked perfect for about 5 minutes....and then, it just.....fell! I baked it for about 50 minutes and a toothpick came out clean, so I'm not sure what happened. The cake was a little tough to frost with a huge crater in the middle of it.

I haven't had an opportunity to share this cake with anyone else yet, but I intend to bring it to my office today. If it goes over big, I'll be sure to let you all know.

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If you'd like to try making Cinnamon Squares for yourself, the recipe can be found on Tracey's site. You can also see how the rest of the group fared with it on the Tuesdays with Dorie blogroll.

Comments

chocolatechic said…
Sorry you didn't like this.

I made breakfast out of mine.


My filling sank like the Titanic
Leslie said…
Sorry this one was a disappointment! How bizarre that it fell like that.
A delicious cake! Very well done!

Cheers,

Rosa
Anonymous said…
Wow you didn't like it? It sounds really good. Lots of cinnamon is so nice and spicy, but it can be overwhelming sometimes.
Jodie said…
Sorry you didn't like it, but it looks fabulous!
Snooky doodle said…
it looks delicious! so so good :)
spike. said…
sorry this one wasn't for you but your results look beautiful (even with sinkage)!
Jennifer said…
I was uncertain about the chocolate and cinnamon, too, and while it wasn't one of my favorites, I liked it more than I thought I would.
Sorry you did not like it. I love cinnamon and chocolate so I would enjoy this cake.
Melissa said…
Sorry you didn't like it. It still looks beautiful! Wonderful photos!
Unknown said…
Sorry you don't care for the combo. It looks wonderful and your pictures are AWESOME! This looks like something I'd like.
Unknown said…
Thanks for baking with me this week! I'm sorry you weren't a fan of the cake. It's bound to happen - hopefully next week's recipe will be more successful for you :)
vibi said…
Oh! No! Susan... I'm so sorry you didn't like this. I'm also surprised because as a very anti-cinnamon person myself, I still loved those. But again all tastes are in the nature... if I may suggest, try it with cream cheese frosting next time, it was just like a great big cinnabun! Yummy!

I have to admit though, yours is one of the best I've seen today!
Emily Rose said…
sorry you didn't love this one- I am a cinnamon freak- I never think anything has too strong of a cinnamon flavor so I loved this one! I was really surprised to find that I loved the chocolate with the cinnamon though!
Sara said…
Sorry to hear this one was not a winner for you. I like the cinnamon flavor, but I can see why it will not be everyone's favorite.
CookiePie said…
Sorry this didn't turn out as you wanted it to. But I do love the cinnamon and chocolate combo!
RecipeGirl said…
Bummer that it wasn't good. At least your pics turned out awesome :)
Manggy said…
Oh! Maybe you got a trick toothpick? Cleaned itself on the way out? Try shimmying it around to make the exit hole wider :) Anyway, I loved the pic of this in the book-- maybe it would be great with caramelized pears :)
These squares look really fantastic!
grace said…
ya know what's funny? too much cinnamon for you is probably not enough cinnamon for me. sorry it didn't float your boat, but just thinking about eating it floats mine. :)
Patsyk said…
I do love chocolate and cinnamon together, so I imagine I'd love this! Wonder what caused your cake to fall in the middle... I've had similar things happen and would love to figure out the cause!
I'm on the fence about cinnamon and chocolate together. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, so I'm curiuos to see how I would like this cake. I have a hard time believing anything with that much chocolate would be bad!
sorry it wasn't your cup of tea. you can pass along any extras to me--looks tasty!
Jen said…
It's so funny - you all seem to do the recipes I've most been wanting to try. I might try this anyway, just because I DO love in-your-face cinnamon and dark chocolate. (Even together)!
MaryBeth said…
These look gorgeous and very tasty...
karen said…
the cinnamon was a bit much for me, too. i am a little overly sensitive to it though i think. your squares look great. :)
Anonymous said…
I'm sorry the flavors didn't win you over but your Cinnamon Square cake looks fabulous! I love how the cinnamon/chocolate ribbon looks like it's smiling at you! And it's soo thick!
Joelle said…
I am one of those people who likes in-your-face cinnamon and chocolate combos, so I may give this a go! :)
Katrina said…
Sorry you didn't like this too much. I was actually WAY low on cinnamon, so I only sprinkled a little in the ribbon layer and it was pretty good with so little. The amount in the recipe seemed like a lot! Yours looks nice though.
Helen said…
Hurrah! Mine sank too! There was so many things wrong about my cake that I forgot to mention that bit in my post! Here's to next week!
The Food Hunter said…
I'm sorry you didn't like this. I make it for my husband often. He loves it. I do use milk chocolate instead of bittersweet though.
Ingrid_3Bs said…
Bummer, I'm sorry you didn't care for them. They still like good to me and I'll be honest I really dig the cinnamon chocolate combo.
~ingrid

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