Look, I made a cake.

OK, I owe you a big, fat, mea culpa. It has been far too long since I posted here, and what is worse, I have had such incredible food and wine experiences since, without sharing them at all with my many, many readers. Mea culpa, mea culpa! I have no excuse. Like Paula Deen's Deep Fried Butter Balls, this is almost unforgivable.

Where do I begin? I have to tell you all about my trip to Italy (whaa?!), but first things first. I want to say a few words about cake.

On cake: I have been thinking a lot about cakes lately, and how I should probably work on perfecting my cakes before moving on to other desserts. Yes, I make a decent pie and a mean tart, but can I make a frosting rose? Well, kind of. But if cakes are square one, then I have a lot to learn before I move on to square two. You are probably wondering how someone can spend so much time thinking about such things instead of, say, making a cake. Well, let me just say that having a background in "theory" really takes the weight off your back of having to actually act on any of these ideas.

In any case, I went straight for the top in my cake education. Sky High, in fact. A double layer cake with bittersweet ganache frosting and raspberry filling, made in many parts over two days:

The cakes themselves came out swimmingly, thanks to my new springform pans. I experimented with lowering the temperature 25 degrees, and sure enough they came out completely flat, perfect for frosting. Now, Smitten Kitchen promised me that making the cakes a day ahead of time was perfectly fine, but I think they lost a little of their moisture on the first day. Next time, I will try her basting with sugar water technique and see if I can fix that.

Two layers instead of four, because I guess I am lazy. Lazier still, I didnt feel like making my own raspberry filling, so I just used raspberry jam. Sue me.

  

 Sky High taught me the importance of using a "crumb layer", or as I call it, "cake panties" when frosting. This acts like glue for all the unsightly little crumbs and globs that come off and show up in your frosting. Plus, it's another layer of this ridiculously delicious bittersweet ganache to enjoy. Definitely go for the Callebaut chocolate in the recipe, but swap semi sweet for bittersweet. (I mean, come on, Gourmet. Don't get your cake panties all in a bunch.)

Another good tip: frosting the cake on the cake board with strips of wax paper underneath. That way, you can make all the mess you want, then just pull out the wax paper and you have a nice, clean cake board. This is one of those obviously smart ideas--like not wearing white when you are making tomato sauce, or using the protective hand guard when slicing a potato on a mandolin-- that I usually don't take. I like to think it's a part of my charm. 

  

 I am working on my frosting skills, ok? I'm not there yet.

The cake looked good when it came out.

 

And it looked even better after a few margaritas.