Heaven Planet: How to cook a celebration cake

There is an unspoken rule in my household: “Where there is celebration, there is cake“. To be honest, in practice, it translates more accurately as “Where there is anyone living in this house, there is cake”, but that doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. And so, I bring you cake today. And because there is more than one reason for celebration, I bring you a giant, somewhat unnecessarily complicated layered cake. Because, hey! If the Bean’s birthday warrants a triple deckered marble cake carved into the shape of a sombrero, surely a trifecta of the one-hundredth post on onebitemore and a combination not one, but two birthdays (being the father’s and oh-yes-I-forgot-to-mention-my-birthday-happened-while-I-was-in-Malaysia) warrants a really, really big one… right?

It was not supposed to be such a large cake. I was going to make small layered cakes, about 15cm in diameter, with melt-in-your-mouth layers of chocolate sponge and a striking pistachio and orange blossom cream. Oh, and a glossy chocolate ganache to top it all off.
But, like with most things in life, I got carried away into a world where making two flavours of cake and that very same cream would match fantastically with a butterscotch pear insert a-la-that-Zumbo-mousse-cake, and what-the-heck-I’ll-just-start-and-see-where-I-end-up. So I started. And, some hours later (including a trip to the airport and a pit stop at Chat Thai), I was done. And I was so damn tired that I didn’t even want to look at the stupid thing.
But I had to, because we were using it to celebrate belated birthdays that night. And as I tasted it, all of my aches and pains started to disappear. The frustration and cussing were replaced with an odd serenity. And I knew that, despite all the parts in the cake that I thought weren’t quite right, that together, it worked.
Which, to take advantage of that little segue, is somewhat like the story of this blog. There’s bits that break all the time. Posts that I’m not quite happy with, pictures that I shake my head at in disbelief. But somehow, it just works, and doing this – well, it makes me happy (despite all the hair-tearing and cussing that may happen behind the scenes). So thanks for being part of the ride so far, cos it’s sure been nice to have your company.

Layered Celebration Cake

Road Map:
1. Make the cakes & let them cool.
2. Make the butterscotch insert & stick it in the freezer.
3. Make the bitter chocolate ganache-y buttercream.
4. Make the pistachio cream.
5. Piece it all together.
6. Eat.
Making the Chocolate Cake