First came the spicy cupcakes,now comes...

A deliciously spicy cake!

A birthday calls for a birthday cake, so for my friends birthday I made a layer cake out of the same spicy cupcake recipe. I was slightly disappointed by the size of the cake,though. The recipe makes 36 cupcakes, so I was expecting at least three 8x8 layers, but it only made two. What I really would love to do next time I make this as a cake (or any cake, really for that matter) is make multiple, thinner layers with more layers of frosting in between. Maybe four or five thin layers of cake with frosting in between each. I think it looks much more elegant for some cakes, and I think for this one especially it would look aesthetically pleasing. I also made a ganache for this cake that I did not make for the cupcakes. I resisted making the ganache before mainly because I pay for all my recipes out of my own pocket, so sometimes that gets pretty expensive. I tend to be a generally frugal person, so I was previously avoiding spending an extra $5 on that single component that wasn't really needed (my frugality is awful). But the birthday man insisted, so I made the ganache. I have never made ganache before, but all the recipes I have seen were only chocolate and heavy whipping cream. This recipe,however, called for powdered sugar as well. In the end, the ganache came out extremely thin, much to thin for my taste,despite the fact that I added more powdered sugar. I think there may have been a problem with the chocolate-to-cream ratio in the initial recipe,though. After pouring it on the cake it was beautifully dark and glossy and after it set it had quite a smooth,firm finish. 

As for that "near disaster" I mentioned in my last post, I have a 3 year old beagle, Abbie, and she has been very good with keeping her little nose out of my kitchen for quite awhile now. She has gotten out of her 'eating everything that comes in reach, edible or not' puppy phase, and usually I can scare her out of the kitchen with single look. On this day however, this cake was just to much to resist. After spending quite a few hours on the cake and the biscotti and cleaning up, I was very tired and ready to go take the cake to the party. I leave the kitchen for TWO SECONDS to start my car, and I get a bad feeling on the way back from the garage, run back inside, and lo and behold there sits little old Abbie jumping off the kitchen chair and scurrying away from the table with guilt.

See how innocent she looks? It's all a lie...

Of course, my initial reaction is overly dramatic: I call my friend in tears crying about how his cake is ruined. After calming down and actually looking at the cake, I saw she had only licked  a corner of frosting off. So, as ugly as it looked to have a hunk cut off, I still had 99% of the cake untouched and perfectly edible. Needless to say, she sure isn't getting any treats from me any time soon...

I know, the frosting is horribly spread, but I have lost my angled spatula(obviously this was before Abbie had gotten into it)

This is the chocolate I've always used-Lindt dark with chili.

See how thin it was? It hardened nice,though.

I wish I would have done more than two layers!

Here is the ganache recipe I used:

3 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
3 oz. chocolate with chili pepper
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 cups confectioner’s sugar

1. Combine chocolate and cream in a bowl and using a double boiler (which I personally prefer) or microwave, melt them together. Once smooth and combined, whisk in the powdered sugar (make sure you sift out any of the lumps in the powdered sugar first) and then let the mixture cool.
2. Pour over the cake.
3. Refrigerate to harden the ganache. (You may have to transfer the cake to another dish after this step, my pan was covered in ganache afterwards.)