I'm pretty sure that I spent the whole two hours writing with a smile on my face.
When I got home I was on a mission. My birthday gift to myself was going to be a Hot Chocolate Cake (recipe)--the same one that was on that month's cover of Fine Cooking. It was going to be glorious. Milk chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache topped with homemade marshmallows. It was going to be colossal. It was going to be decadent. It was going to give us all diabetes within the first two bites.
Making the cake itself was an odyssey. Whether due to exhaustion or brain overload or simply not reading the whole recipe through before I started, the cake was not available for consumption until well after 11:00pm. My timing was completely wrong. I washed dishes and made a snack while the cakes were in the oven when I should have been making the ganache (that was supposed to sit in the fridge for a couple hours). I took a break while the cakes cooled and should have been making the marshmallows. Both these elements needed time to set or rest before they could be used, so it took way longer than necessary to get things done. I mean, it felt like eons. Lessons learned. I promise.
When it was all done, the cake was definitely the biggest I've made to date. My sister said it looked like the chocolate cake in the movie Matilda (you know, the one that the evil headmistress gets the chubby boy to eat in front of the whole school). I'll be completely honest here, and say that I was unable to finish my piece. And I really tried.
Another thing I learned when undertaking this great cake odyssey is that you should thoroughly cool the cake first before serving it. It tasted a lot better the next day after sitting in the cold porch overnight. Less dense and more airy.
This all being said, I don't think I'll be making a huge chocolatey chocolate cake anytime in the near future. My pancreas needs a break.
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