Definitely Chocolate

There was no mistaking that what I had made was chocolate cake when I pulled the cake pans out of the oven. This was darker and more chocolate-y then anything I've ever made*.

The frosting didn't turn out quite as I had hoped. As usually happens, I'm impatient with waiting for ganache to cool and usually end up trying to use it when it's still too liquidy or else sticking it in the fridge and it ends up being too set. This time was the latter. I was hoping that whipping it would help but it didn't. The raggedy edges of the cake were caused by the frosting ripping the cake up. I didn't end up with enough to pipe a border to hide the edges either. I tried to cover it up with the chocolate glaze but the damage was too severe.

Then I discovered I didn't have any white chocolate. I was going to do the writing in white chocolate to make it really stand out. In the end, I melted a square of semi-sweet, and ended up with a pretty nice "tone-on-tone" effect, as a friend described it. I didn't make a very good paper cone either, hence the sloppy "writing" and the use of a flower to fill the empty space from my bad lettering placement.

Taste-wise though, this cake could not be faulted. I was a little concerned at first at the amount of liquid in the recipe. But the end result was a deeply chocolate, truffle-y cake without dense or fudge-y. I believe the coffee was what really enhanced the chocolate flavour. I brewed eight shots of espresso, as I don't have a coffee maker and instant just didn't seem like it was going to cut it.

Recipe for the cake is here. I didn't use the frosting recipe but made a basic ganache with just chopped chocolate and heavy whipping cream. The glaze was chocolate and a little butter.

(Ed's note: I have a bad memory, so this isn't saying much)