Three Layers of Chocolatey Goodness!

The finished product!

Twice a year I'll actually go to some effort to bake a nice cake; once for my Dad's Birthday and the other time for my son's Birthday. On the weekend, I baked this Chocolate Birthday Cake for my Dad. I combined four different recipes (all from the Taste website), because I don't like to make things easy for myself. I made the Icing that goes with this Chocolate Layer Cake because the comments underneath were positive (I always read the comments from people who've made the dishes, they're rife with useful nuggets of information).

Chocolate Mousse-like Icing. So yummy!

The white chocolate-dipped strawberry idea came from this Double-Choc Strawberries recipe, but I couldn't be arsed double dipping, and I thought white chocolate alone would complement the cake better anyway.

These were a big hit!

The Chocolate Ganache scared me to be honest, and I'm amazed I didn't screw it up. This is where reading the tips/comments under each recipe comes in handy, for I already had a quick fix for if the mixture curdled! Apparently, whisking through more cold cream will smooth out curdled ganache. Thank Christ it didn't come to that. Although I probably waited too long to ice the top, because the ganache was starting to set towards the end and it became difficult to spread, forcing me to be super-speedy!

Straight after I'd dipped the strawberries in melted white chocolate I had the genius idea to kind of drizzle the leftover chocolate over the top of the cake. I'm so glad I did this! It made the cake look way more professional and 'finished' and the contrasting colour lightened it up aesthetically. I didn't pipe it or anything, I just used a teaspoon to drizzle it from side to side. You have to work fairly quickly, because it doesn't take long for melted chocolate to set, rendering it completely useless!

Err, yeah. You can tell I didn't pipe it!

My cakes (yes, I baked two) didn't rise enough for four layers, so I happily settled for three. The cake is very rich and definitely needs to be served with cream or icecream. I'm so happy everyone loved it. It took me an entire anxiety-filled day to make, but it was worth it.

A slice of heaven!

What a poser

Happy Birthday Dad :)