baker, baker, bake me a cake

Wowzers!  I am on a roll, baking up a storm!

Today is Kim's birthday.  Happy Birthday Kim!  We are going out tonight to meet them for dinner. So, I asked her husband if I could make her birthday cake.  I generally find baking fun and I wanted to make a special cake for her birthday. 

I found this double chocolate layer cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen, a cooking blog I sometimes read. This is a "from scratch" cake, for sure.  I followed her directions, mostly. It is a moist chocolate cake with raspberry filling and a chocolate ganache frosting. I decided to bake my cakes in three 9" cake pans (because that is what I have) instead of the two 10- by 2-inch pans she suggests.

 Here we have all 3 layers with raspberry filling gushing out of the sides.  I probably went a little heavy on the raspberry.  I guess we'll find out when we cut into it tonight.

 I did the script on the top and the frosting around the edges.  You can see the edge frosting in the photos below.  David was the master of the little confectionery pearls.  He did such a good job. He also helped out during the making of the cake, saving the day a couple of times.

A little detail shot of the bottom edge of the cake.

Here is the masterpiece in all its glory!  

Happy Birthday Kim!