heaven and hell cake

since i had the day off on friday, i decided to tackle a baking project that i had been wanting to try for a while. i wanted to attempt to make a heaven and hell cake from the whisk kid blog. its called a heaven and hell cake because it is thin layers of devil’s food cake and angel food cake. little did i know it would be hellish to bake.

i read the recipe, made a list, went to the grocery store, etc.

i even bought myself two, new, very shiny cake pans!

after i started baking, i read the entire assembly directions, i read that this would be a four hour project! you have to freeze the cake for 2 hours before frosting it and refrigerate it for 2 hours after frosting it…. lesson learned: read the ENTIRE recipe and directions BEFORE you start the project. it had been a long, overwhelming week and i was looking forward to some good decompression, so i continued on. let’s just say this recipe turned out to be long and overwhelming too.

stage 1-the cake itself:

i deviated slightly and used fewer layers. i had plenty of peanut butter mousse and it was squeezing out every edge and into the cake layer.

the chocolate ganche icing was completely disastrous and made a “mote” (as LRD named it) around the bottom of the cake. we couldn’t put the lid on the cake carrier  and it leaked all over us, the towel underneath it, and LT’s driveway as we transported it to her house.

stage 2-the finished cake:

it tasted like what i imagine heavenly food will taste like! so worth the 5 hours it took to complete. it is so rich! a good dessert to make once bathing suit season is completed and we all don our winter trousers.

there are many things i want to change next time. mostly i will cut corners and use cool-whip as an ingredient instead of making my own whipping cream and other tedious processes that required me to wash the mixer bowl and beaters about 5 times. this will definitely be a long time favorite of our group of dessert loving friends. i will continue on and hopefully have it perfected by the time the holidays roll around!

thanks to my taste testers for joyfully eating my baking experiments when your mouth is full of sticky peanut butter and you can’t talk!

if anyone wants a taste, i still have about 2/3 of a cake left at home. come on over!