So...without further ado...here is my Housewarming Cake!:
My second adventure into the world of novelty cakes was for a housewarming/birthday party for one of my friends. It was also a chance to try out a new recipe I'd been pining for and give working with ganache a go.
One thing I loved about the cake was that it was coconut flavored without using coconut in the batter. I, personally, love all types of coconut cakes and foods and, honestly, just eating coconut straight from the bag, but I know that a lot of people are turned off by the texture. This recipe achieves the coconut taste without the texture by using a mixture of coconut extract and coconut milk (something I hadn't even thought of, but which now seems really obvious).
After carving the cake, the next step was covering with ganache. Just like Jessica told me during her Clean and Simple Cake Design class, ganache is a dream to work with. It spread so smoothly and then hardened a couple minutes after application. With a knife warmed under running water, I was able to easily smooth the sides down and then, even being at a little warmer than room temperature (it was hot out that day!) it hardened to a nice shell that I didn't have to worry about messing up during the decorating phase.
But that's fine, the final product was well worth the effort.