Hi Beantown Baker readers!
I’m Erica from In and Around Town, helping Jen while she is living it up in Europe! I live in Boston and love to write about the restaurants I visit here in the city (or elsewhere in the world) and tell you all about my trials in the kitchen (since it’s rarely smooth sailing for me!). When Jen asked me to do a guest post, I was really excited: her blog was one of the first ones I started reading and helped inspire me to start my own. Hope you enjoy!
A while ago I remember hearing rumors about a mythical brunch that only consisted of chocolate. Being the chocolate lover I am, I was immediately intrigued but did not look into it, thinking it was too good to be true. I just assumed that it was a typical hotel buffet brunch that maybe had a larger dessert spread to choose from. I had no idea how wrong I could be.
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| Chocolate Fountain and dipping choices |
For Nick’s sister’s birthday (another chocolate lover) Nick did a bit more research and found that it was put on at Cafe Fleuri at the Langham Hotel. As Nick put it, this is not a breakfast-style brunch with chocolate everywhere. Instead, this is as close as you can get to visiting Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory in real life!
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| If the chocolate choices weren’t enough, there were bowls full of candy! |
When you walk into the open and airy restaurant with its skylights letting the sun shine in, you are greeted by a lovely hostess and servers who are excited to welcome your group to the infamous brunch. Around the restaurant we noticed a wide variety of gusts – families, groups of ladies enjoying a fun afternoon out, and teenagers celebrating a birthday (they really seemed to enjoy the DJ, especially when he played their One Direction request!).
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| Chocolate Covered Strawberry Table (Chocolate Covered Everything, really) |
When I first walked into the brunch area, I was completely overwhelmed! There were SO many chocolate dishes everywhere I turned. Instead of diving in immediately I took the opportunity to snap some photos and survey the tables. There were just so many options that were creative and more than your average chocolate dish. Our server informed us that were a variety of types of chocolate and levels of coco used in each of the dishes. Really, plenty of options to satisfy just about any palette.
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| Truffles, Cakes and Mousses… |
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| Dark Chocolate Creme Brulee, Cannoli and Eclaries |
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| Layer Cakes… |
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| Cookies and Muffins |
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| Cotton Candy!! |
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| Non-Chocolate Table (imagine that!) |
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| Ice Cream Sundae Table, with all sorts of add-ins and toppings |
Having done my full round (or two) of surveying, I went in with my plate ready to make some decisions. My goal was to have only one or two bites of everything I got – just a taste, otherwise I wouldn’t get anywhere! My first stop was the crepe station, where you can select from a chocolate or vanilla crepe, filled with milk, white or dark chocolate, berries and coconut among other toppings, all made to order! It was just too good to resist and was totally delicious. The chocolate crepe was light with only a hint of chocolate, but the milk chocolate filling provided enough to satisfy even the biggest chocolate fan. The berries were a fresh contrast to the rest of the components.
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| Chocolate Crepe filled with milk chocolate, coconut and mixed berries topped off with whipped cream |
My first plate included some chocolate covered strawberries, a chocolate whoopie pie, flourless chocolate layer cake, almond cookies, mini lemon meringue tart, banana cream tartlet topped off with a meringue and garnished with a piece of bacon, and finally a gruyere tart topped with some dark chocolate.
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| Plate 1 |
My favorite was the gruyere tart, a salty sweet cheese that matched perfectly with the dark chocolate drizzled overtop. I definitely ate the whole tartlet and it was worth it! The whoopie pie cake was light and fluffy and had a delicious cream filling that was rich and creamy. The cookie was a no-bake almond crunch cookie that was dense with sliced almonds smothered in a rich dark chocolate. The lemon meringue was only OK – not enough lemon flavoring for me. Nick’s favorite was the banana pudding tartlet. It’s generally one of his favorite sweets, and the salty bacon crunch on the top gave a slight salty burst of flavor.
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| Another look at plate 1 |
It wouldn’t be much of a chocolate brunch without some chocolate martinis! There were three offerings and three of us, so we ordered all three. These were some strong drinks! All were made with chocolae spirits such as Godiva liqueur. Each taste I had seemed to be stronger than that last and overall they were just a bit too much for me. But with creative sugared rims, garnishes and combinations of alcohols, if you are into this style of cocktails, these would be right up your ally!
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| Chocolate Martini’s! |
After a bit of a break and a large glass of water, I went back for round two. This time I had a bit more of an idea of what I wanted having seen Nick and his sister’s plates. With that feedback, I made a beeline for the truffles (milk and dark) as well as this blueberry yogurt cake – the color alone had my eye! The truffles were good, however, I loved the blueberry cake. &It was moist and light with a fruity flavor that was a nice contrast from many of the other offerings.
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| Plate 2 |
I also could not resist the spoonful of powdered chocolate, but this was a bit of a miss – not sure what the goal of this dish was. The shot glass in the background had a delicious hot chocolate with a spicy kick that was fun and delicious! That last dish on this plate was my favorite of the entire afternoon – chocolate mousse with a layer of olive oil garnished with a salty breadstick. The olive oil here was the star of the dish. It added a surprising richness that you thought would be overkill but wasn’t at all and added a whole other dimension to the dish! The breadstick just provide the perfect vehicle to get it into my mouth faster 😉
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| Another view of plate 2 |
Nick had heard that the chocolate break pudding was one of their signature dishes, and it did not disappoint. The bread pudding was warm and rich, and tasted great with some homemade whipped cream.
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| Chocolate bread pudding topped off with a big dollop of whipped cream |
I could not pass through the chocolate bar without having one the creme brulees – it’s my favorite! I decided on the milk chocolate flavor and it was delicious. The burnt sugar top was the perfect crust to the light and creamy milk chocolate below. In my opinion, creme brulee should definitely incorporate chocolate more often!
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| Milk Chocolate Creme Brulee |
After so much sweet food, it was time for a bit of salt. Luckily they thought of this and put out homemade potato chips and popcorn. The potato chips were delicious, sliced a bit thicker, cooked to a perfect golden brown and topped off with some kosher salt. A great end to a perfect sweet meal.
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| Golden Potato Chip Perfection |
If you are looking for the perfect embodiment of a chocolate meal, the Chocolate Bar at the Langham Hotel is it! This brunch is loads of fun and something everyone should indulge in at some point.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
loving the baileys idea! mmmmm
I use the same recipe (I think, I’ve had it for years; a standby. I think it was called “Chocolate Fudge Frosting”)
Best thing EVER to do? add a bit of mint extract – it’s very easily my most popular cake filling.. and my favourite icing to eat by the spoonful lol.
I haven’t found the perfect chocolate frosting yet, so I’ll definitely have to try this one!
i definitely, definitely have to try this soon. i can’t get enough of chocolate!
It’s funny about the no milk thing…I was making a new martini recipe that was super strong, so I thought cream would help it become drinkable – but I had no cream, but I did have Vanilla Caramel Coffeemate…it was great!
Ironically, I almost never have milk and always have Bailey’s. Go figure.
Sometimes you really do need a seriously dark chocolatey frosting. This looks absolutely ideal.
you really got into the food styling there — cute pic with the cupcake in the sprinkles.
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This sounds nice – I’ll have to try it one day! Jen, have you tried King Arthur Flour’s Supersimple Chocolate Frosting recipe? It is my favourite recipe (so far) for chocolate frosting – I’d definitely recommend it!
(Sheesh! deleted to fix a typo! Wish there was an edit function :))
Pegster – I have not tried the KA recipe. It looks similar to this chocolate frosting recipe which is delicious!
The think I love about this frosting is the stiffness and the fudgeness.
I like this frosting for when I want something quick. Otherwise, I like to use frosting that involves melted, good chocolate for those special occasions. YUM! I would gobble up your cupcakes in a second.
Great call on the Bailey’s – my mom would love that icing. I am going to try this next time I make cupcakes.
I would never think to sub bailey’s for milk. Brilliant. I love my chocolate desserts to be super chocolaty – this looks great!
LOVE the super pink sprinkles too. So pretty 😀
Oh, I forgot to mention that I’m hosting a giveaway. I wonder if it would come handy in this baking project…
These look great!! I love your photos!! I’ve been searching for a good chocolate-y frosting and I think I might try this!!
Would you mind checking out my blog? 😀 http://ajscookingsecrets.blogspot.com/
I could have definitely used this recipe for my sourdough chocolate cake this week
http://gamereviewwiki.com/bikinibirthday/2010/06/21/day-158-binge-weekend/
i just made this frosting today to go inside some cupcakes using your cone method. and i topped with vanilla buttercream, at my hubby’s request.
let me just say this was so delicious i had to take my whitening strips out early so i could lick my fingers, and then the bowl. then my 15 month old attacked me to lick the spatula. we were all sugar high and happy before dinner.
my hubby said “every day i am happier i married you because of things like this”
Thanks for sharing this recipe!!!
Kris – I love hearing comments like that! Thanks for trusting my recipes enough to try on your hubby!
Mmm this looks fantastic, though the ingredients look similar to another delicious recipe I’ve used before that is pretty soft. I’m guessing it’s the butter temperature. Should it be room temperature here? Thanks!
You definitely want your butter at room temperature so it creams nicely.
I have the Bailey’s..lol but I’m out of cocoa powder. Have you ever tried subbing it with melted chocolate? And if so how much do you use?
Best frosting ever. Perfect taste, texture and color. It was divine. I will never use another chocolate frosting recipe ever again. Thank you very, very much! It is truly a gift. 🙂
Jen,
I am a person who has been cooking from the age of 5 ….lol now i have certin likes loves and disliks lol however i found a revepie i wanted to make and it called for a fudge type frosting…. knowing i didnt have one i liked for this so i started looking friday night and didnt come across your recepie until saturday morning so i got out my ingreadience.. but i didnt have Balies or white milk i had some Cream de Mint and Choc. Milk so i straied a tad from ur recepie …. i used 1/2 stick of butter, and to get 1/3 cup of liquid i used aprox 1/4 cup of Cream de Mint and the rest Choc. Milk. Plus the res of ur ingreadience …..omg this is the best dark choc fudge frosting ive ever had!!!! And i used the best dk. Cocoa i know of !!!!!! Thankyou thankyou THANKYOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m a baker and for the life of me I can’t find a thick chocolate fudge frosting. Is this frosting thick? I don’t want anything too creamy, like ganache when you let it sit. Help please!
beantownbaker — February 4th, 2013 @ 9:45 pm
This frosting is definitely thick. You can see in the pictures that it held up nicely to piping. It’s not as creamy as a ganache.
Thank you for responding! 🙂 I see that some people use melted chocolate instead of cocoa powder. Doesn’t it really matter?
beantownbaker — February 5th, 2013 @ 10:13 am
For this recipe, I always use cocoa powder.
If I make these the day before do I have to refrigerate them(since the recipe calls for milk)or can I leave them on the counter covered?
beantownbaker — October 30th, 2013 @ 8:21 pm
You can leave them on the counter. The milk in the frosting stabilizes so it won’t go bad. I’d put them in a covered container though.
Hi. Is the butter you use salted or unsalted?
beantownbaker — December 26th, 2013 @ 11:01 am
I always use unsalted butter unless specified as salted butter.
This is absolutely THE BEST chocolate frosting recipe I have EVER tried. I used it to frost some homemade vanilla mint cupcakes and topped them with an Andes mint for my daughters sweet 16 party. I had complete strangers tell me I need to open up a bakery and sell nothing but those cupcakes! Thank you so much for posting this. It is truly amazing.
beantownbaker — January 2nd, 2014 @ 1:32 pm
SO glad you enjoy this recipe! Nothing beats a great chocolate frosting.
I can’t wait to try this! I LOVE the flavor of the hersey’s dark choc frosting recipe but its so thin that i can’t use it for cupcakes, only for a cake. I even tried refrigeration overnight to see if that would thicken it up and it didn’t. so i can not wait try to this one for my cupcakes!
beantownbaker — April 27th, 2014 @ 2:53 pm
I agree. The Hershey’s one is just too thin for cupcakes.
I made a variation on this recipe for my daughter’s birthday cake yesterday and it was fabulous!
I’m still trying to figure out how 6T butter is enough though–I ended up putting in two whole sticks of butter and adding in the milk after the first addition (I added it slowly) of powdered sugar/cocoa combo–it was so thick and dry that my mixer was making new, horrible noises and I was sure it was going to die! LOL