Happy Boo-lated Birthday, Happy Halloween & Happy Fall Y'all

Three more cakes in autumn and Halloween themes.

First is Brook's Boo-lated Birthday Cake. We were going to Brook & Sam's annual Halloween party so I offered to bring a cake, of course. Brook had just had a birthday, but didn't get to celebrate it so Sam asked me to make a birthday cake. Lemon is Brook's favorite so I baked a lemon pound cake with lemon filling and lemon buttercream frosting. I went with a Halloween design and I can't say I was happy with the final outcome. I was, however, happy with the custom cake stand that I made. But they enjoyed the cake with family the next day and said it was really good.



I also made this dirt cake, which I adorned with gummy worms and insects. I modified the filling recipe and added a bottom layer made of devil's food cake. It was actually delicious. The filling ended up being more of a chocolatey-cream cheese mousse! There was extra filling left over and we enjoyed it for several nights!



And finally, this is a dessert cake that I'm bringing to work for food day on Friday, which is also Halloween. It's an 8-inch devil's food cake with six layers of cake and chocolate bavarian cream filling. I frosted it with Ghirardelli chocolate frosting and then pourced Ghirardelli chocolate ganache over the entire cake. The decorations are buttercream and cream cheese frostings. Yummy!

Chocolate Ganache Birthday Cake

This cake was baked for the son of my friend, Tally, to celebrate his 14th birthday. It's a six-layer, devil's food cake with bavarian cream filling. I covered it with Ghirardelli chocolate frosting then poured chocolate ganache on top.

Yum!

Glorious Ganache

This cake was very simple to make. It's a five layer yellow cake with Bavarian cream filling. It is covered in buttercream frosting and drizzled with chocolate ganache.

Ganache with Panache: Sandi's Birthday Cake

I surprised my friend, Sandi, with a chocolate cake for her birthday. She loves chocolate and chocolate covered strawberries, so I pulled out all the stops and invented a cake just for her.

It was a devil's food cake with chocolate Bavarian cream filling. I bought a can of Ghirardelli chocolate powder and made chocolate frosting using the recipe found on the label. It tasted fabulous! I then poured chocolate ganache over the entire cake. It was supposed to flow over the cake and drip down the sides but I learned an important lesson. Don't try this on a cake you have just removed from the refrigerator! The chocolate cools quickly and doesn't flow.

Then, I dipped fresh strawberries in the ganache and clustered them on top of the cake and placed them around the base of the cake. I drizzled them with melted white chocolate. Then I tried writing on the cake with the melted white chocolate. This didn't exactly work, as you can see.

But...the cake TASTED fantastic! One person said that each chocolate area was a little adventure. An adventure in chocolate. Sandi has named it her official birthday cake and said I must deliver one to her for her birthday every year.