Birthday Cake Disaster!
Haha… yes it was pretty much a disaster! Gary wanted a triple layer chocolate cake for his birthday. “No problem”, I said. I decided to try a different recipe from the one I normally use – first mistake. I don’t know why, I just fancied a change. You can find the recipe I tried here. It is a nice enough cake but I mustn’t have greased my tins well enough (and I put loads of butter on them) as bits of the first 2 layers stuck to the tins when I tried to get them out. For the 3rd layer I put greaseproof paper on the base as well, and it came off much better (although still not perfect).
I always make chocolate butter cream icing for my cakes. Again, this time we fancied something different so I attempted to make a chocolate ganache – second mistake! Ahem… I’m not exactly sure what went wrong, as I thought I measured out the cream quite well (it is hard to measure exactly 568ml of cream!). And I definitely added the right amount of chocolate. Yes, I painstakingly chopped up a whole 400g bar of Dairy Milk and didn’t even eat one piece as the recipe called for exactly 400g! Torture! Gary came in at one stage and lifted a bit of chocolate. I promptly shouted at him and got him to take it straight back out of his mouth lol…!
Anyway, my ganache was much too runny. I even sacrificed my Dairy Milk Easter Chick that i have been saving at the back of the cupboard in case of emergency. But even the Chick’s extra chocolate didn’t help to thicken it up. Well, after I sandwiched the (crooked) layers together with the ganache I read the recipe again and it said “Pour ganache over the top and let it fall down the sides”… Ok then. So that’s what I did and promptly had a puddle of ganache running off the kitchen counter! I tried to stem it by eating spoons of it before it fell but I couldn’t keep up with the flow.
After cleaning up with lots of kitchen roll, my cake was kinda ready. It didn’t look too bad, just a little bit like The Leaning Tower of Pisa lol…:)
It actually tasted really nice, the cake itself was lovely and moist and the topping was nice too, if a little thin!
So the moral of the story is: stick to what you know unless you have practised the recipe beforehand!
PS – I really, really, really need a Kitchen Aid mixer for Christmas (ahem, Gary!!) – I can’t cope with creaming butter and sugar by hand anymore! 
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 12:49 pm and is filed under Baking, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 31st, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Tweets that mention Birthday Cake Disaster! -- Topsy.com says:[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Nicola , Nicola . Nicola said: Read about my chocolate cake disaster for Gary's birthday! http://bit.ly/8YTudp [...]
August 31st, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Wow, it looks amazing. Any left? I also NEED a KitchenAid and have dropped numerous blatant hints. I think it has worked. My sis said herself and my dad are considering it for my birthday. I hope they do cos otherwise I'll be devastated now after her telling me.
August 31st, 2010 at 4:50 pm
Aww you're very kind! There is plenty left! Kitchen Aids are amazing aren't they?? Hope you get yours lol..
September 1st, 2010 at 11:43 am
This is totally not a disaster. Baking is only a disaster when the end product is totally inedible.
I reckon you're being way too hard on yourself here, it looks amazing and I would never have known there was anything 'wrong' with it if you hadn't told us!
September 1st, 2010 at 2:40 pm
I want a piece! I'm sure Gary is just pleased to have a wife willing to try and make what he wants! Besides, who cares what it looks like if it tasted good. I say you did an amazing job! Don't let the puppy near it!
September 1st, 2010 at 11:20 pm
Aww thank you my love! It wasn't too much of a disaster looking back on it – I just wanted it to go right first time! Might go have some more cake now
September 1st, 2010 at 11:21 pm
Thank you!! Lol… the puppy hasn't touched it don't worry!!
September 2nd, 2010 at 5:11 pm
Looks pretty good to me! I always wanted a KitchenAid, but on reflection, the thought of just measuring ingrediens and pouring them into a mixer one by one left me a bit cold, I wouldn't feel like I was 'baking' then!
September 2nd, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Yea I know what you mean! I just really need something to help me cream butter & sugar – I'm rubbish at it!! lol..
September 5th, 2011 at 11:17 am
Nic's Notebook » Blog Archive » Mint Aero Cheesecake says:[...] him. He has had variations of a chocolate cake for the last few years – (see last year’s chocolate disaster cake!) so I decided to make a cheesecake this year just to be [...]