Chocolate Cake (Variation) and Chocolate Ganache

Lastly (are you tired yet?  It’s past my bed time):

come to the dark side…we have cake.

I used this recipe.  My modifications are: 9” round cake pan, 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes and cornstarch.  At 350 degrees Fahrenheit, it takes near to 40 minutes to bake a 9” round, though the time may be the result of the horrible oven I am using at school (at least I have a thermometer).  I didn’t have any vanilla; instead, I added a teaspoon of cinnamon (I put cinnamon in most everything I eat, and that is only a slight exaggeration).  I didn't add chocolate chips since I made a chocolate ganache for topping.  Ganachetise it when it’s cool.

Quick Melty Ganache

Adapted for the dorm from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, via this website.

3 tablespoons non-dairy milk

1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (make sure they're vegan and GF)

Place ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl and cover with waxed paper.  Microwave for 45 seconds then remove and stir with a spatula until the chocolate chips are completely melted.  Cool.  It will set up after a few hours; microwave it for 5-10 seconds to make it spreadable when your cake is ready.  Only frost a completely cooled cake!

This is what happens when you frost a still-warm cake:

landslide!

Ganache defies gravity:

I made this batch of ganache in my dorm using coconut milk. The coconut milk precipitated out in the form of white fatty spots while the ganache set overnight in the fridge. Weird!

I think that’s enough for now.  I had my senior portrait today and my hair was in the 'hawk.  I’m developing dreads after a week of hawkage.  After a while, and I don’t know if anyone can relate, my deathhawk morphs into a bihawk (double mohawk, FYI) as I re-tease it every morning.  I look like I have horns, which is cool, but for some reason, that centre section of hair just doesn’t want to stay up.  No matter.  Ah, good, the rotation has returned us to Rob Zombie.

Rock on,

Q

P.S. I appeared on this blog recently.  There ya go.