The Cordon Bleu Cake

Sara: Michelle Madden, a good friend of ours from New York, came to cocktails in Paris bearing an awesome gift—a cake that had been made at a Cordon Bleu demonstration class earlier in the day. (A friend of hers is studying at the famous cooking school—lucky woman.) It was a touch squashed from its metro trip, but delicious nonetheless. She said the chef had lined the baking tin with parchment, sliced the round, moist, almond-y cake into the thin layers, brushed each with raspberry jam, glazed the whole thing with the chocolate and decorated it impeccably, not to mention quickly. I think we probably ate it faster.