My husband was born on erev Shavuos. Which means this week goes like this: Festive birthday dinner on Monday night, special Yom Tov meals for Tuesday dinner and Wednesday lunch, and Shabbos cooking a day later. In other words: Shabbos, Shabbos, Shabbos, all in a row.

Now, I know a birthday doesn’t necessarily warrant “Shabbos.” And it’s not like this one was even a milestone. (Yes, that’s right. My husband is neither 20 nor 30!)

But I saw this recipe for a double-layer chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and fudge sauce dripping down the sides on Smitten Kitchen, and I knew I just had to.

Once I was making a crazy-intense dessert, of course I had to make the rest of the meal to match. But back to the dessert.

I mentally designated Monday as Cake Day and planned to begin early. Which was a good thing, considering I started a few minutes before 3 p.m. and finished after 7:30. Of course, it wasn’t like I was cake-ing for four and a half hours straight. There was just all this fuss about cakes coming out of the oven and sitting on the counter for 20 minutes and in the freezer for 30 minutes, and then in the fridge after each layer was frosted, and all that.

Some takeaways from my first-ever crazy-fancy cake:

 

 

 

 

 

1. When the recipe says to butter the bottom and sides of the pan, do it well. The first layer came out of my brand-new springform pan, alright. But it was missing little pieces here and there.

2. When your cake layers are missing little pieces, fill them in with frosting and hope for the best. Also, hope you aren’t the one to get the slice with that huge gob of frosting. (Oops.)

3. It’s okay if you don’t have an icing knife to smooth out the frosting. The smallest of my regular knives worked just fine.

4. Speaking of frosting, it makes sense to read the directions before you begin. Dumping all the ingredients in the mixing bowl and then reading the instructions only means you’ll end up trying to remove half of what you put in, and then adding it back, one cup at a time. (Trust me on this one.)

5. When a recipe warns that the cake is so intense it should be cut in the thinnest slices possible AND served with milk, pay attention. My regular-sized piece was too much for me, and even Husband took only a sliver of a second piece. (I know, I know. The photo makes it look like no one around here took just a sliver. It’s the angle! I promise!)

So the cake is done, we had our fill, and now it’s time to plan my Shavuos menu.

Which naturally, includes a crazy-intense cheesecake.

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