The title gives it all away, this ends in near disaster! I had set high goals for making a layered chocolate cake. I mean, I watched videos online and everything! (being sarcastic 
I even found a nice recipe for a Bailey’s chocolate ganache. I researched, read forums, watched videos of other cake-tastrophes…I thought it would go so smoothly! I even decided to go with a boxed cake recipe rather than make it from scratch, I figured that would make things alot easier and take less time.
My sister mixing the ganache
I invited my sister over to help out and I mixed up the cake batter real quick so that we could get to work on the ganache. Timing seemed to be a huge factor here. The ganache needed to be cooled enough but at the right consistency to pour over the cakes. Throughout my research I found several different ways on making layer cakes. You can slice the cake in the middle to make two small layers. You can use small cake pans or large cake pans or shaped cake pans. You can even make regular sized cakes and cut them up to make different shapes. To keep this simple, however, I decided to use one box mix and pour that into two separate 9″ cake pans.
Two 9" cake pans using one box mix
The cakes baked up beautifully and took almost no time at all. I was a little impatient though, so I went ahead and transferred them to a cooling rack so that we could layer them up and pour that delicious ganache all over it. Yeah, that was my first mistake. The cakes were still too warm and they literally started melting onto the cooling rack.
Problems arise...
It may be hard to see the crack forming, and I didn’t intentionally take a picture of the crack. I thought I was just taking a cool picture using my macro setting! However, this is where we think the problems began. With the cakes still warm they couldn’t support themselves on the wire racks and began “melting”. We took them off and set them on plates right when we noticed this happening, but by then both cakes had pretty big cracks in them.
The picture that I am about to post is pretty graphic in nature. There were a series of events in which I couldn’t take pictures and so this was the end result of our cake. We let the broken cakes cool and decided to go ahead and frost them with a nice buttercream frosting for the middle. My sister, however, got carried away and put the entire jar of frosting on the cake. We think that this was mistake number two! We didn’t realize it at the time though, so we put the second layer on top and started pouring the ganache on the top thinking that it would help cover the cracks. To our dismay we discovered that the ganache had gotten a little too cool and therefore was very thick. We put all of the ganache on the cake which made it so heavy that the cracks were getting bigger! We kept trying to save the cake, but before you know it…it looked like this….
Explosion!
We saved it!
Our imaginations went wild, and with some raspberries that I picked up we were able to turn a disaster into a wonderful dessert! The lessons I would like all beginning bakers to take away from this is:
1. Let the cakes cool properly
2. Go easy on the frosting
3. Prepare the ganache accordingly and try to time it right
As for a review on the actual taste of the cake, I would definately make this again. The rich buttercream frosting combined with the Baileys and semi-sweet chocolate ganache offered a nice contrast. The raspberries also added a nice tart sweetness to it that was just right. I’ll probably stick with a box mix next time until I get the hang of things, besides, it was very moist and fluffy. I may consider using a sweeter frosting to go along with the accented raspberries, but we’ll just have to experiment and see!
YUM
Chocolate cake mix: Box mix from the store
Bailey’s ganache:
Ingredients:
3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup Bailey’s Irish Cream
Directions:
Place chocolate chips in a medium heatproof bowl. Pour the heavy cream in a small saucepan and heat until scalding. Pour cream over the chocolate chips and let sit for 5 minutes. Stir until chips are melted and the cream is mixed in. Stir in the Irish cream. Let cool to desired consistency.
I know that I got the ganache recipe off of a baking blog, but I cannot find it again. If this is your recipe PLEASE let me know and I will give credit where credit is due. Thank you!
We got at least 12 custard cups worth of cake
Tags: Bailey's Irish Cream ganache, baking, cake, chocolate, chocolate cake, dessert, layered cake, recipe
Way to think quickly, honey! I have to say I’m glad I didn’t see the explosion firsthand…it looked pretty traumatic
Love this post! I think sometimes having a cake-tastrafy like this is really a blessing in disguise. I think I learned my lesson too about not over using the filling and letting cakes cool completely.
Your final product looks very yummy…glad it worked out:)
Ethan – haha thanks! I think it would have been more dangerous for you to come down when sis and I were still trying to figure out what happened!!
Maria – This really was a blessing in disguise! The custard cups were actually very useful as we could take them into work with our lunches without having a huge container of mess! I will definately be trying this again, I’ll get the hang of it soon!
Creative save!
WTG Jen,
good save! i’ve had my share of disasters and you my friend are brave! I would of opened a bottle of merlot to sooth my nerves!
Thanks branny and Cyndy! My sister and I were about to toss that thing in the trash and maybe cry a little bit
Now that I know this turned out so well, perhaps I’ll purposely mess up a cake just so that I can use my custard cups again!
I have had my share of cake disasters. Don’t let that discourage you. The most important part of any cake starts with the buttering and flouring of the pan. I used to not realize this. Cake parchment rounds really help as well. Nowadays, I butter the cake thoroughly, flour thoroughly, tap it off and then if ANY spots look unbuttered I stick my finger in the extra pat of butter and literally butter that spot with my finger. Then I drop flour on again and tap out the excess. My cakes literally fly out of the pan almost. Anyhow, thanks for stopping by my blog. Have a great day!
Hi Geni! Yeah, I think with my cake-tastrophe disaster it was a combination of a few things! Not being patient while letting the cake cool was problem number 1
I think second mistake was using too much frosting in the middle of the cake rather than a cake filling! I am eager to attempt to make a layer cake once again, however and learn from my mistakes! For greasing the cake pans I typically use the PAM spray, but for bundt cake pans I use butter and flour. I think I’ll be using the butter and flour method this time around! Thanks for all your advice and encouragement!
I love your save! Great thinking. I would have been so mad at myself that I would have thrown the whole thing away.
Thank you! Trust me, though, if my sister wasn’t there I would have done the exact same thing!
I like making truffles out of ganache. Does this recipe harden up enough so I could scoop it and coat it with chocolate?
Hi Brianne! The ganache seemed to harden from runny-liquid to gooey-liquid at room temperature, but I bet it would be perfect if it had been placed in the fridge to harden. Unfortunately I have no experience with truffle-making, but if you discover anything (good or bad) let me know!