?Make a Wish, I?ll Make One Too??

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes!

Sometimes I wonder if I’m unconsciously suicidal.

Usually this happens around my birthday, when I decide I’m going to make dishes x, y z, q, and r for z number of people.  I always think it isn’t going to be too much, but my tastes tend to lean towards the extravagant, which augers certain disaster.

Last year is the first time I remember trying this, and I was about ready to pull my hair out mid-party because things still weren’t done and my chocolate oblivion truffle torte just wouldn’t set.  Thankfully it was a potluck, so the guests saved me and themselves.

Like I said, absolutely suicidal.  & twisted, I mean who tries to off themselves on their birthday?

(Cherry blossoms in my parent’s backyard, just to break up the text)

So this year, I came up with a plan; a schedule of when I could make ahead which things could stand it.  Yeah, schedules don’t mean much when you’re planning a five-course meal with two desserts ><”.

The menu was as follows:

Grapes and Cheese

Spinach Salad with Cucumber and Pear (a recent experiment that came out sooo good)

Crusty Bread (storebought, I didn’t have time to venture into baguette-making)

Chicken with Gremolata (Chick Peas with Ditto for the two vegetarians)

Sugoli (from Dulcis in Furno, one of my fave blogs)

Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

Yep, two desserts. Apparently I enjoy the pain just that much. No potluck this time to cover my butt.

Honestly I got so caught up in the party itself (it was a murder mystery – Sour Grapes of Wrath, highly recommended!), that I forgot to take pics of the food before it was served (and disappeared), so this post will just focus on the one thing that caused me the most stress.

This cake.  Now, how do I even start telling you about this cake?  There are two things I love about my birthday:  #1 – it gives me an excuse to gather with friends.  #2 – it gives me an excuse to make all sorts of decadent.  I’m not sure, but I think a friend said to me, “it sucks that you have to make your own cake.”  Girl, please.  I chose to make my own, I wanted to.  I absolutely refuse to buy one of those supermarket cakes with the pretty sugar roses and sickening amounts of frosting from my childhood, because I know I can make better.

This cake in particular was crazy-chocolate rush.  I wanted a cake that would stand up to the ice cream layer, and decided brownie was the way to go.  My first layer of brownie came out well, but a bit too overcooked for a brownie, so I decided to cook the second layer for less time.  This failed because when I was trying to remove it from the springform pan, an outside edge stuck to the pan’s base, and the centre fell out.  So I had to mash it back inside and re-bake, hoping everything fused together in the process.  You don’t mess with me, see, I will make you work *snaps*

Assembly was pretty basic, and probably the only thing that went kind of right.  A layer of brownie, cooled and frosted, was topped with ice cream and frozen.  somehow the ice cream started leaking out of the bottom of the springform pan, but I worked around that.  Top that with another layer of brownie frosted on both sides, and freeze.  Lightly frost and freeze (I made a chocolate buttercream with chocolate soymilk, nutmeg, and instant coffee – try it!).

This is where I started running into trouble.  I’ve never actually frosted an entire cake, you see.  It kind of worked out, but any tips would be much appreciated!

After that I coated the cake in ganache.  Despite what the Sara Lee cheesecakes of my childhood, ganache+cold does not equal funtimes. It started to seize up as soon as it made contact with my very frozen cake.  I managed to kind of smooth it out with wet hands, like a potter working clay, but still, not great.

Overall, I was happy with it, and it tasted yum!  Have any of you ever made an ice cream cake before?

I did miss the pretty roses of my childhood cakes though, which is why I tried my hand at making chocolate plastic ones.

I was expecting their creation to be absolutely nerve-racking, especially since I’ve never before sculpted anything so intricate with just my hands, nor worked with chocolate plastic.  As you can see, though, it was surprisingly easy!  Kind of thick, but I think they’re really pretty.  I would have taken process photos, but my mom was hovering about, and if she found out I have a blog, things would be weird.  Vera’s recipe and tutorial were very easy to follow!  Plus the chocolate plastic was really yummy =P.  The only tip I would add is to roll the chocolate plastic into a pill-type oblong shape and slowly massage it out in both directions when making petals for better shape.  Oh, and a little bit of chocolate plastic goes a long way, believe me.  I made a half-recipe and had lots left over.  If you do try making these, make sure you have a good chunk of time on your hands just in case; those roses took me about three hours.

I ended up eating leftovers of this cake for breakfast in the following days, so when I got around to making my submission for An Affair of Breakfast, I wanted something very light and healthy.  What that was you will just have to wait and see, teehee.

~Kurious Kitteh