Another Birthday!

Yesterday was my husband's birthday.  He is the love of my life.  If my daughters are lucky enough to find a man that is even half as good a man as he,  they will be richly blessed. 

He requested a German Chocolate Cake, like he does every year.  It's his favorite, and I usually make it just once a year for his birthday.  I must admit, I hate German Chocolate Cake.  I never, ever think, "Wow, I wish I had a piece of GCC for dessert", or any other cake for that matter. This year, I decided to try a new recipe (hopefully one without the condensed milk icing which I think is so cloyingly sweet).  I found this recipe on the food network site.  It sounded interesting, even without a picture, so I thought, "Why not? I'll give this one a try".  I did use two round pans instead of the 9 x 13-inch pan that Paula called for.  After all, this was going to be a birthday cake.

Well, Paula didn't call it the volcano cake for nothin'!  Thankfully, I put a sheet pan under the cakes while they were baking, even though I thought the two pans had more volume than the one.  I really didn't think they would bubble over. I'm so glad I had the cookie sheet underneath.  Those layers bubbled and there was a bit of batter that escaped over the side.  Although I got the cakes to release it wasn't pretty, and I would suggest you use just one pan if you make this cake.  Because of the candy and cheesecake batter, the cakes have many holes and they are not stable at all; which is why this is not a recipe for a two layer cake.  But it worked for us, so we were relieved.  Using an ice cream scoop, I plopped (that is an accurate description) the cream cheese mixture into the chocolate batter, then used the tip of a knife to "marble" the two together. 
 

You can just see the cheesecake mixture that is marbled into the layers in the photo to the left.

I think this "marbling" is what allowed me to be able to get the cakes out of the pans because the batter was a little better integrated.  I also traded the over-bearingly sweet condensed milk coconut frosting for really sweet ganache.  Not much of a trade, but I really don't like that concendsed milk frosting and everyone loves ganache, don't they?  (You'd think this was my birthday cake if I hadn't clarified that at the beginning of the post). 

Thank goodness Bruce liked the new version of GCC. It still has coconut in the cake, just not in the frosting.  How can you go wrong with a cake recipe that uses Almond Joy candy bars and ganache?

If you try this cake, BEWARE!!!! It is rich, rich, rich.  One cake will go a long way.  You only need a teeny, tiny, piece. And be sure to offer a big glass of milk along with it.

Happy Birthday Bruce.  I love you.