Cake??

The season is upon us when the holidays are in full swing. The 4th annual Ackerman cookie exchange is happening again and that means baking galore. This year was a bit easier with only 8 1/2 dozen cookies to bake, so this year I decided to tackle a cake too. Like so many other things in life, I thought this was going to be easy. I guess I forgot how demanding kids can be, but I anticipated this and started baking on Thursday so Chris could watch the kids before he left to go trail clearing up in Cook.



So on Thursday, I got all of my cookie exchange cookies done...chewy fudge browning cookies, lemon bars for Chris and brownies for the kids and Chris to share. On top of that, I got the batter done for the peanut blossom cookies that I was going to make for Chris to take with him too. I thought I was on a roll. Then Friday came...Chris had to work part of the day and all the kids were home from school (staff development day).



I was still feeling good, but I realized that I was running out of Hershey kisses. After a run to the store and 12+ dozen cookies later, the peanut butter blossoms were done. Now onto the cake. I was excited to start this project because it was suppose to be an easy cake with fancy frosting. This cake was suppose to be made from a box mix BUT of course I forgot to buy the mix. No problem, I'll make the cake from scratch. Some where along the lines working with my double ovens I got side tracked and jumped the cooking process. So unfortunately the first cake didn't come out of the pan in one piece but no worries nothing frosting couldn't fix.



I have to say this cake was fun to make, but I have no idea how it tastes. We will have to ask Vicki for the final say, because it was her birthday that inspired me to take on this task. The chocolate cake, filled with chocolate ganache, topped off with strawberries and chocolate swirls/wording is a sight. The picture is the after affect of hot ganache over frosting and chocolate swirls...a melted lava of cake. A little disappointing after the work put into it, but now we know let hot ganache cool before applying the chocolate lettering.