Last night we had a cake night for the first time in what seems like forever.  If you don’t remember about our cake nights, we used to have them nearly monthly; I bake a cake and my foodie friends bring an entree.

Since my good friend Karen was here from New York, we knew we had to plan an extravaganza.  I decided to make this Heaven and Hell cake from Saveur.  Angel food cake, devil’s food cake, peanut butter mousse and ganache.  Um… YUM.

I mixed it up, though, since I wasn’t sure about some of the elements.  First, I changed the ganache from a milk chocolate one to a dark chocolate one.  Everyone agreed that was a much better choice.  And then, I cut the mousse recipe in half, since it called for 4 cups of peanut butter, 1 1/2 lbs of cream cheese and a bunch of powdered sugar.  Someone had commented on the post that the mousse was more like cheesecake, so I figured less is more, in this case.  And I’d say it was.

It turned out pretty well; it wasn’t my favorite but my guests all seemed to agree it was delish.

The ganache also posed a few problems for me.  The recipe asks you to let it sit at room temp for four hours, and then to spread it onto the cake.  But the ganache was so hardened, it wouldn’t spread.  I melted it in the microwave, but then it was so runny it wouldn’t stick to the sides of the cake very well.  I tried to do the standard ganache “drip” off the edges once I’d kind of covered it, so that’s why it looks a little… rustic.

So I’d recommend something in between: heat your ganache about fifteen seconds in the microwave, stir it up, and then try to frost with it.  It does need a little softening, but even a minute in the microwave nearly completely melted it.

Karen and I had been out shopping earlier in the week, and we saw this “table saw.”  Karen had to get it as her contribution to this and future cake nights.  I tried to use it to cut the cake…

But it wasn’t quite delicate enough.  It kind of smashed all the ganache.  I used a regular chef’s knife instead.

Turns out, the Heaven and Hell cake was a perfect accompaniment to the awful, hellish Oscar ceremony we were watching while eating.  Honestly, who thought any of those bits were a good idea?  From the terrible Les Miz number that Anne Hathaway, to her credit, tried to sell, to the inane banter to the difficult-to-open Oscar envelopes, it was just a train wreck.  It may go down in history as one of the worst Oscars ever, I’d predict.

I also decided to burn many of the candles I have recently made at the party.  Check out how the star taper candle melted down:

Cool, no?  RD Husband said, “So, you spent all that time making the star on this candle and then it just melts?  Just like that?”  And I said, “Yep.”  And he said, “Wow, that seems like poor design.”

Hope you had a lovely Oscars evening.

Share!

•