12-Layer Cake

And now for that baking adventure I promised!

This cake was totally inspired by Bakerella here at this link. Essentially, you make 12 really thin layers of rich yellow cake and stack them all together sandwiched by a really rich chocolate-y ganache-type concoction. (Did I mention that this cake was going to be really rich!? I mean...5 sticks of butter!?) I thought it would be a really great idea for Valentine's Day (12 layers is way more than 2 or 3 and therefore I love you more, Ha ha ha! :P) It was also something new I had never seen before, so I decided to give it a whirl...

12-LAYER CAKE

Ingredients

Cake:
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups sugar
6 large eggs
3 cups milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Icing:
3 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions can be found at this link

I would like to first point out that the batter made a HUGE mess of my stand mixer and counter top...

But when baked, the super thin layers popped right out of the pan thanks to...

PAN GREASE

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup shortening

Mix together until light and fluffy. Store covered at room temperature. Use pastry brush to apply to pans.

Because I only had 3 cake pans, I had to bake all 12 layers in four different batches...but at 12 minutes each, it only took me an hour to get everything baked and cooled.

And then construction began!

Place one cake layer on a cooling rack over a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet because each addition of chocolate icing is going to drip all over the sides. Also, the icing will tend to make the cake layers slide. BELIEVE ME ON THIS ONE!!! I had an epic disaster with this and ended up with a toppled mess of cake and chocolate icing. I was forced to re-stack my layers and the only way I managed to keep it looking like the lovely tower below was to push some bamboo skewers down through the layers and let it sit overnight!

If you ignore the ugly exterior and jump right into cutting out slices however, you are rewarded handsomely with the view...

AWESOME!!! And it was super yummy in my tummy too! :D

Unfortunately, this cake was relatively labor and time intensive, so it is not something I am likely to repeat again in the near future...

Hope you enjoyed this adventure...now stay tuned for the next episode occurring in... ???

-M-