Belated Birthday Baking Bounty

In our home we celebrated a birthday (or two!) a little late this year, but with great fanfare.  Having recently made an AMAZING chocolate cake, I knew where to begin - with the Deep, Dark Chocolate Cake in BakeWise.  This cake is truly great.  Having now used it twice, with folks who really know and love chocolate, it is a decided hit, and will be my go-to chocolate cake now.

I decided to top the cake with The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook's Vanilla Buttercream frosting.  While the proportions are estimates, certainly, their instruction to whip the frosting for much longer than you think you need to is well taken.  The frosting is utterly light, yet so rich!

I also tried something new, a suggestion from BakeWise (this Shirley O. Corriher knows what she's doing around a cake!).  A variation on the chocolate cake recipe calls for a "Cake Soaking Solution."  While I didn't follow the recipe exactly, I did use it to create a light syrup, which is poured over the cake layer when the syrup is hot, melting a bit of the chocolate and adding extra moisture to the cake before it is frosted.

 When I had frosted the first layer and placed the second layer, this looked like a giant whoopie pie, which made me giggle and consider (if only for a moment) simply leaving it in this state.

However, I decided to continue with the rest of the assembly.  I added another drizzle of the hot soaking solution to the top layer of the cake.  It lends the cake something of a glazed effect, and makes the cake remain moist and luscious much longer!  Then I added in the remaining frosting, swirling the top into a slight, snowy peak.

As a final touch, I added some dark chocolate shavings to the top of the cake - a mature finish for a decidedly indulgent cake.

When it came time to serve the cake, I cut small pieces, as this is RICH.  However, everyone devoured it, and my 10-year-old niece enjoyed a second piece, in honor of her belated birthday too.



Even three days after the cake was baked, and two and half days after assembly, it had not dried out at all.  The remaining piece was gobbled up, and just as enjoyable, on day four!  Mmm...