Noah "Transforms" His Way From 3-4!

Kendall's Carnival Birthday Cake

Chocolate Ganache, Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Chocolate Buttercream Frosting..............A BLUE RIBBON WINNER!

Chocolate is by far my favorite cake flavor. So naturally Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Frosting, just can't be beat, right? WRONG! I discovered it can be beat by adding GANACHE! And just when I thought I couldn't top that? I added a little bit of Raspberry flavoring to the chocolate buttercream and WOW - I had just come up with the pefect combination of every Serious Chocolate Lover's Dream! (Including my own)

So I followed the directions from a link that I found on Pinterest.  Basically added two ingredients to make the ganache:  Dark Chocolate Chips and Heavy Cream.  I heated up the heavy cream on the stove (can be done in microwave), didn't let it boil, but did wait to see little bubbles around the edge of the cream in the pan.  Pour chips in, begin to slowly swirl, stir, etc. until it looks like it does in the pic above.  Most blogs I read said to NOT put the ganache in the fridge, but to leave it on the counter for a few hours, until it was at the perfecct consistency for spreading like frosting.  It worked for me!  I frosted my cake with my chocolate buttercream, and then frosted the outside with the ganache (just in the same way I would have applied and spread buttercream.)

 I learned that the main goal that bakers try to achieve with a ganached cake is to get very sharp corners.  As well as smooth on the sides, but corners are critical.  So I give myself about a B on this first cake.  I was pressed for time, but in a way that was good, because I COULD have spent HOURS fiddling around with the sides and corners.  I threw togethre a few flowers, put them up top and walah!  Mom provided the beautiful cake plate and white back sheet for the picture.  It was so tantilizing, my son couldn't keep his fingers off it....

Also, as a side note, I did try out one of my new tools - the silicone mold of the design at the bottom of the cake.  I thought this gave the cake a nice finish, for very little effort on my part.  Youtube videos come with instruction on using the silicone molds, so they are really easy to use.  I'll be using more and more of these in the future!