Caaaake!

Yes, if you noticed in the previous post, I mentioned the "c-word". Cake. Delicious, delicious cake. By the way - the ice cream sandwiches? Other than for a bit of freezer burn, not bad! I used the Tovolo ice cream sandwich maker gadget, which worked out pretty well. It's a little complicated to explain - so maybe next time I will photo-document to explain how it worked.

So yes, I had some cake tops (levelled off cake....'tops') leftover from a project I had last week - my very first "paid-for" cake! Granted, it was for a co-worker's birthday - but it was my first paid-for cake! That wasn't paid for by a relative! Ha!

They didn't have a specific cake in mind, "something chocolate", they requested, and of course I obliged. I went with a multi-layered chocolate mousse cake enveloped (rhymes with 'developed') in a white chocolate ganache-buttercream frosting (kind of an oxymoron, I know, but I'll explain later). A pic of the goods, c/o a coworker's camera (but taken by me):

How many layers would you say that cake is? 3? 5? Does the mousse filling count as a layer? Or simply the sandwich glue that holds it all together? I didn't tell them, but this cake was booze-heavy! (say it with me "boooooze heavy!") Kahlua and Frangelico in the mousse and Amaretto keeping the cake layers nice and moist. Trust me, it makes a difference.

The only specific instruction I received was to keep the top white. I'm not the best at cake decorating, so I opted to do an all-white frost and let them decorate the rest. Oh, did I mention that this was for the Art Team? Ha ha - I knew they would appreciate a little more white space. I found a recipe for white chocolate ganache, but once I made it...it didn't really coat as nicely as hoped. I did halve the recipe - but still, the chocolate cake was so dark, the effect wasn't great. I decided do mix things up by integrating it into a moderated buttercream (butter, cream, icing sugar) and it was really, really good. Really creamy, perfect amount of sweetness and went on like a dream. I'm going to try and duplicate it in the future!

(a snippet of their fantastic decorating! I missed the candles and cutting, but managed to secure myself a slice :)

So there ends another week. And next week - another cake. I have something quite unique up my sleeve...or rather, my apron. Which would mean, I have something quite unique under my skirt? ;P

Another Sunday. Another cake. Mmmmm.

(ah, will I ever format my pictures again? Maybe one day. But they actually look really decent before I do all ma fancy edging. So perhaps for quality's sake, I'll keep them....'raw'. Maybe borders?)

I let Annie know that a cake was a comin' her way - what flavour would she like? "Chocolate..." is the response I received. "But what kind of chocolate?" I replied, "there's dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, chocolate hazelnut, chocolate orange, chocolate with coconut...!!"

"Give me direction...!" I pleaded, "I'll give you until Monday to decide."

Monday came and went with no response. :( Luckily for me, the local grocery store would make my decision for me. 2 packets of raspberries for $5! Score! Get me 4, Mothership!

The goods:

Dense chocolate cake base, doused liberally with Raspberry Marie Brizard (raspberry liquer, not as good as Chambord, though), topped with fresh raspberries and then covered in chocolate mousse. (two layers)
Cake was then covered on the sides with crumbled chocolate wafers, the top was edged with more raspberries and then ganached to within an inch of it's sweet, sweet life.

Ooh yeah.










































(Top Left: It's like a wafer cobblestone. Like from a Willy Wonka dream. Top Right: "Hey, watch what you're doing with that knife!" Bottom Left: I practiced that icing writing three times on Saran Wrap (on top of a template) before doing it for real. Bottom Right: On first glance, it looks like a landslide disaster. On closer inspection - it's just the miracle of dessert.)

While nibbling on my second slice, I was asked whether or not this took me a long time. Yes and no. Yes, it took about a week from start to finish, but I had delayed this cake for a week (frozen the cake layers for the days in between). Technically it would have taken me....three days? One to make the cake. Another to do the mousse and chill. Another to assemble. But that's doing it leisurely and on a good pace. If you try and attempt to do it all in a day - forget it. You're not giving yourself enough breathing time to enjoy the process - not to mention time to do another cake in case you mess up. (I did mess up the mousse - forgot the gelatin, added it in TOO late, made the custard too watery. Start again. Thank G for Costco-quantity FRO eggs.)

But each step, really didn't take me too long. I suppose I've made enough cakes that each step can get completed fairly quickly.

But it's all avec l'amour, mon amie! Bon anniversaire!

(the Lu-monster. Her bark is far worse than her non-existent bite.)