birthday sweets

at least the pie was perfect! and it was my first try baking one from scratch, crust and all. i used this recipe with a lot less sugar and no zest. it was so delicious and i got to have a slice for breakfast the next day! mmm...

the cake, however.

i wanted to make a round cake but couldn't locate the bottom of the second springform round. so i tried to make the best of a rectangular pan. upon removal, the cake decided that 57% of it wanted to stay put and it broke. ughhh. in a panic i tried to cut and stack without any sort of planning and ended up with a lopsided, 3-layer cube which i tried to mask in chocolate ganache.

welp. it looked pretty ridiculous. my first attempt at a frosted cake from scratch was foiled. but the dane saved the day and showed up with raspberries, danish flags, and candles. the packaged contained 24 candles, coincidentally my current age!

obviously it looked even more comical than before but my guests and i got a good laugh out of it and i didn't hear anyone complaining about the taste. i will definitely be using the recipe again. it was some rich chocolate-on-chocolate action, with solbær marmelade between the layers. unfortunately there was none leftover so i couldn't add more calories to my pie breakfast the next day. (;