the Cake

I've been sitting on this post for a week now. It is the Cake post. I made this for our dinner party with Laura and Tony to celebrate the fourth of July and my little bro's birthday--but secretly it was for me a little bit too, because I knew I would be too lazy to bake myself a cake.

The Cake. The four layers of heaven that almost killed me. Saveur calls it the "Heaven and Hell cake," and this is not far from the truth. Devil's food, angel food. Fluffy cake, dense ganache. Heaven to eat, hell to digest.

The Cake, in its birthday suit

This Cake is a monster. It is without question a temperamental, supremely decadent, Paris Hilton of a cake--but so much fatter and so, so delicious.

Find the recipe here. Bake if you dare: It is so worth it. And I had the last piece for breakfast on my birthday! That is the breakfast of champions. Or it would have been, with a tall mimosa to wash it down with. (Fresca is just not the same.)

I did make one change to the recipe. Instead of the peanut butter mousse, at my brother's request I made a chocolate cream cheese frosting for the filling. Everything else was pretty much the same as the Saveur recipe, although I used 8" cake rounds rather than the larger version the magazine recommends. I fit all the devil's food into one round, but there was just so much fluffy angel food batter that I ended up with two healthy sized angel food cakes. I could have made six layers but I didn't feel motivated to slice unnecessarily, so the angel food layers were extra thick. I would actually do it like that again, because every other layer was unbelievably rich and dense.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 oz Neufchatel or Cream Cheese (room temp.)
• 1/2 sitck sweet cream butter (softened)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 + cups confectioner's sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)

Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until smooth and fluffy. Add sugar, one cup at a time, until desired consistency is reached. I wanted it to be thick so that it would stand up to the ganache coating and the rich cakes. Finally, add cocoa powder by tablespoons until desired chocolatiness is reached. This is prime sampling opportunity.