This Year's Birthday D Cake Pictures and Hints

It's actually the same as last year's.   Every year I bake these cakes for Kevin.  It is his favorite cake, ever.  I make it faithfully to the recipe, and every year I get different results.   The reason is that every time I make the cake, something different and strangely wonderful happens to it. 

One year I forgot the baker's chocolate until the last moment and it had chunks and an interesting marbleizing effect through out when it decided to congeal as soon as it hit the batter.

One year it didn't quite turn out right and ended up uneven.  The Leaning Tower Of Cake.

Last year was the black icing cake.  

This year I got little pale "white" speckles throughout.  Interesting effect.   What happened was I got cocky and added the flour all at once then turned on the mixer.

There are two problems with that.

If you have ever turned a stand mixer on with flour in the bowl the word that describes the result best is ... "Pouf!".   Yes, a snowfall of epic proportions of a fine white dusting of flour over everything.   Pouf! goes the flour and you will be cleaning it all up sometime in the future.

The second was what caused the little white bits in the result.   It formed concrete along the bowl.   The cake flour bonded with the wet ingredients and made a yellowish layer of concrete on the bowl that I chipped off and turned the mixer onto.  Full speed.  It was more like a Pouf! followed by an interesting grinding action while ice floes of yellow concrete got blasted into little balls of sugary sweet goodness.

The cake ate well, we had the first layer as a D Cake the other day, and it even kept into the second day.  There are two more layers sitting in the freezer for when we're feeling the need for cake.   You can just make out the little speckles in the result here.

I do have two ideas for this cake.  One will be using a sweet chocolate to change the taste a little.  The other will be using un-melted chocolate chips.  After all, if you can't play with your food, why bother baking it yourself!

Just remember to add your flour slowly, a tablespoon or three at a time!