Chocolate Cake with Piped Ganache

Ms M has just had her 11th birthday.  As I have blogged about before, my kids have ridiculously high ideals for how their cakes should be.  They are difficult to fob off with something I would find easy to make and I don't always meet their expectations.  This year M wanted a Mud Cake like the one from Jocelyn's provisions.  Jocelyn's mud cakes are so fancy and gourmet that they cost $17.50 for a 12cm small bar cake.  I agree they are sublimely delicious but cost prohibitive for 12 children to eat.

Here is my go, its just a standard Mud cake recipe but I am most excited about the Ganache icing.  I have always been intimidated by Ganache (even spelling it freaks me out!)  We had a crazy couple of days before the party and there was just no time to think let alone master a Jocelyn cake.  I only had an hour and a half on friday morning to ice the cake and that was in between getting everyone ready for school.  I used half of the ganache just as it had cooled to join the two cakes and to do the top.  I whipped the other half to pipe the sides with.  The whipped Ganache was a disaster and wouldn't hold its shape and I couldn't get it to whip any further.  Before I knew it we were out of time and I just had to put the whole lot into the fridge and walk out the door.

When we got home later in the day (and 30 mins before the friends were due to arrive.)  I pulled it all out of the fridge to find it had set beautifully! It was just too warm  to whip properly in the morning.  Phew so I quickly troweled some around the sides and used up the rest with some slam bam piping.

I reckon with bit more time and a less crazy schedule
to work around I could do this cake properly.

It tasted pretty good to me. 

Afternoon Tea party snacks