TWD: Cherry-Fudge Brownie Torte

So I am a day late this week... oops! I went to dinner with two girlfriends last night and was just too tired when I got home to post. I need to start posting on Monday nights!

This week's recipe was chosen by April of Short + Rose. Until this week I've followed every recipe pretty closely (except for subbing in applesauce for some of the butter/oil in the allspice crumb muffins). This week, however.... I had to make some changes! First of all, I don't keep kirsch on hand (I actually don't even know what kirsch is... though I gather from the P&Q that its some sort of cherry liquor). We actually don't keep any liquor on hand (we're beer and wine people)... and I wasn't about to go out and buy a bottle of rum for a teensy 1/4 cup! I also couldn't find marscapone cheese at the grocery store. I spent 15 minutes scouring the refrigerated section but came up empty handed. So I used all cream cheese instead. I don't own a springform pan so I halved the recipe and made it in a Corningware casserole dish. Despite all of this, the torte came out really well! The bottom layer is a rich, fudgy brownie. I was a little concerned about the whole cherries (I think I've mentioned before I have texture issues), but they were hardly noticeable and just made the brownie more moist. The top layer was a creamy mousse - I'm sure the marscapone would have been delicious, but cream cheese worked well (and I even used 1/3 less fat!).

I followed the suggestion in the book and put a few tablespoons of leftover cherry preserves in my mini food chopper to make a glaze. I spooned this into a sandwich bag, cut off the corner, and piped lines on top of the torte. Then I used a butter knife to make the chevron pattern. It turned out nicely - and would be great for a dinner party.

Be sure to check the TWD blogroll to see how everyone else did!