Sweet Yet Sour

A Birthday Cake Fit for Me

Monday, May 16th, 2011 | Cooking, Wedding Cake Try-outs

A few weeks after Henry was born I determined that when I nursed him a few hours after eating chocolate, he would become fussy and irritable.  He had the same reaction to dairy products, and so for a few months I went without chocolate and had very little dairy.

Which meant that last year for my birthday, I did not have a chocolate cake for my birthday; I don’t think I even made a cake last year – I was so bummed about not having chocolate.  Going without chocolate nearly killed me.  Seriously, I am a borderline addict.  I can go without it, but if it’s around, I crave it and sometimes can’t stop myself from eating a lot. Thankfully, although Henry is not done nursing yet, he is far less sensitive to what I eat these days and I can eat whatever I want and not have to worry about the baby’s tummy too.

So what does a chocolate addict do when she makes her own birthday cake?  Why she makes a chocolate cake with ganache and whipping cream of course!

My birthday was a weekday and also coincided with Mike’s monthly home-brewers club meeting in the evening.  For lunch on that day, I ordered pizza and my parents, my sister, nephew and Mike all came to our house for a brief lunch followed by Key Lime Pie from Whole Foods.  (My sister, as you may recall has a wheat allergy, so she can eat things like Key Lime Pie and just not eat the crust and I ordered a gluten-free pizza for her lunch.)

After lunch I was left alone with the kids again and so while they napped I started the sourdough cake batter fermenting.  Later on in the afternoon I made the chocolate cake and then after the kids went down for bedtime, I pondered what do with frosting the cake.

Left alone and without anyone to ask, “Don’t you think that’s a bit much?” – I decided to go all out and make a ganache and whipping cream cake.  I cut each chocolate cake layer into two and in between each one I layered ganache and then whipping cream.

Once the cake was built, I put whipping cream on the sides and then piled a whole bunch of ganache on top.  I attempted to have it gracefully “slop” over the sides, and it looked pretty good.

But it tasted even better! The whipping cream gracefully cuts the bitterness of the dark chocolate in the ganache and the cake was even better the next day when everything had sort of mushed together.

I didn’t save a piece of this in the freezer for the wedding cake try-outs, although it could be a contender.  It was incredibly decadent, and I just wasn’t sure if this has a place at a casual summer wedding…  Thoughts?

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