I'm having a very hard time writing about this. Not because I messed it up. Not because it wasn't good, not even because it was hard. But, rather, because I did it...successfully.
I see a lot of recipes day-to-day, especially ones for dessert. I seek them out and have more desserts bookmarked on my computer than anything else. I couldn't care less about making savory dinners, yet I am passionate about sweets. Making a dessert is like making a work of art every time for me, and after making
this I feel like I've been finger painting my whole life and finally discovered a paintbrush, and can now properly do this form of art.
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| I did not have enough food dye! |
This cake didn't start off on a good note. After putting all the ingredients out in front of me I realized: Crap. I've never made a cake from scratch. Or a cheesecake. Or a successful ganache. I ended up picking up my 2/3 cup instead of my 1/2 cup for adding the flour, and didn't realize it until the end. I used my instincts and added enough buttermilk until it seemed like a batter consistency. Then, on top of that, I didn't have nearly enough red food dye, and it turned into a bit of a mauve velvet cake.
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| Mauve-Tan Velvet cake? |
When I started making the cheesecake, I realized I was short an entire 8 oz. of cream cheese. What, seriously? It worked out, though, since everything was in 3rd...I cut out a 1/3rd of all the other ingredients. It all ended up working out. I was so happy that I had overcome 2 real issues by now! On top of that, the cake baked quite beautifully. The crust burned a little bit, so I will have to figure that out, but my Dad didn't seem to mind.
The ganache was easy! I tried it once before, and ended up with a chocolate soup that sat in my fridge for days while I hopelessly thought "Please harden!"...and ended up throwing it away after all was said and done. This worked out really well, and I had a hard time not eating it as I was baking the cake.
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| First complete success! |
My last hurdle was the frosting. I thought it would be easy, but I was making this 10 minutes before my Dad was arriving, and I guess I was too stressed, because it tasted like butter....and that was it. Butter. I ended up throwing all of it in the garbage and dumped the remainder of the ganache on top of the cake, along with some white chcolate, strawberries and BAM.
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| Beaut' |
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| Happy Daddy :) |
I made it. It was delicious. It was not the most successful cake ever, but I DID IT! I couldn't even believe it. I basically made 2 cakes, both of which had some issues, but I got through all of them with my own confidence and intuition. I made something that absolutely overwhelmed me, and it was wonderful. It was successful, and I'm looking forward to making a creation of my very own.
