The Birthday Challenge...#31. Learn how to bake cakes (and not blame the oven)

Stephanie Alexander's classic Reine de Saba popularly known as the flourless chocolate cake

[image by Zahara Dessert]

Today is my husband's birthday and yesterday we had our family over for a BBQ at our house to celebrate.

I set myself the challenge to make a cake that was worthy of this celebration and redeem myself from the infamous birthday cake disaster from 2 years ago.

I used this recipe by Stephanie Alexander, it is a flourless chocolate cake.
It was given to me by my good friend Alissa who is a 'cake making goddess'. As it was tried and tested, I thought I would give it a go.

Note: I did have a packet mix as a back up, just in case there was another disaster.

I am very proud to say that it was a major success.

It did not burn.
It did not implode
It did not crack
All the ingredients that were used in the recipe were in the cake
It was nice and gooey in the middle
It tasted great

And most importantly the birthday boy loved it! (he even said I could quote him!)



Ziggy waiting for the cake to bake... as you can see, he was as nervous as I was [image by Zahara Dessert]

 

I got a bit excited with the lining of the baking paper, but I didn't want the cake to stick to the pan or leak [image by Zahara Dessert]



The final product in all its glory! [image by Zahara Dessert]

 Although I can't say LL #31 is completed. I can say that I am well on my way to become a much better cake baker than what I was.