The best SCD birthday cake.

This year, I knew I wanted a bonafide birthday cake. I had adapted a clementine cake recipe for Thanksgiving, thinking that if it passed muster I would make it again for my birthday. When I was talking to my mom about it, though, she seemed really intrigued, and I decided that the clementine cake would instead become my Christmas dessert while I was visiting, which left me free to figure out a more birthday-appropriate cake - something with layers and frosting. After much deliberation, I finally decided on this recipe for yellow cake with chocolate ganache (check the comments for the ganache recipe).

It didn't start out quite like I was expecting - the batter was quite frothy, and I only had one pan, so I baked a layer before lunch and one several hours later. I was worried that the "lift" would be affected for the second layer, but it actually rose much better than the first.

I changed the ganache recipe around a bit. I used lactose-free cream and not as much chocolate - 240 grams instead of 340. I added crystallised fructose because the chocolate was very dark and I wanted to be sure it was sweet enough. The ganache separated a bit when I chilled it. We ended up warming it closer to room temperature and whipping it in our standing mixer so we'd be able to frost the cake.

 The final product was delicious. A friend of mine had to leave early, so she had a slice before we actually sang happy birthday. My husband used this to his advantage...

The cake barely lasted through Sunday. On Monday, there was one solitary chunk left, but it soon vanished...