Another year, another attempt

How time flies! It is still fresh in my memory how I had a difficult time struggling away to make a Cinnamoroll cake for my niece's birthday last year ;)

This year, instead of the usual sponge-layered cake, I made her a rich and dense chocolate cake, just like the one I did for my own birthday (recipe posted here).


I wasn't quite sure how to go about decorating the cake, since I do not have much creative juices in me. I bought some mini m&ms and thought I could just pour them all over the top after coating the cake with chocolate ganache. The plan didn't work out as I realised that I need a lot more m&ms than what was in the small little plastic container. So, I just studded a few m&ms on the sides of the cake and sat there staring at the cake. With the leftover ganache I decided to pipe little stars (the only thing I can pipe!) around the circumference. I had so much fun piping that I made another round on the cake board ;)


I didn't know what was wrong with me, but after feeling very satisfied with the little stars, I came up with this 'brilliant idea' of arranging the m&ms on top of each little piped stars. That was a wrong decision to make. Oh boy, I didn't know it was such a delicate task to place one tiny candy on each of those closely piped stars! You need very steady and yet gentle fingers to complete the job. To make sure the stars wouldn't sink upon the weight of the m&ms, I chilled the cake in the freezer for a couple of minutes just to firm up the chocolate ganache...it was yet another wrong move! I believe, the consequence of this silly action of mine had caused the m&ms to absorb moisture from the cold ganache and they started to melt away while I was taking pictures of the finished cake. Lesson learned, next time I will use baking m&ms instead, maybe they won't melt away so easily?

I sprinkled lots of chocolate rice to fill up the empty space in the middle...it was the easiest and a fool proof way to jazz up the cake a little.


I wasn't very satisfied with how the decoration was done, but it was the best I could manage. I just hoped that my niece would find it appealing!

It turned out that she loved the cake! In fact, when she came over for dinner at my place, my sis has actually brought along an 'over-the-counter' chocolate cake. Upon seeing the cake I made, both told me immediately that they would prefer to have my cake to celebrate the occasion. All of us like the delicious and chocolaty taste of the cake. Although I have mixed a tablespoon of Baileys Irish Cream in the chocolate ganache, I couldn't taste it at all. Either the amount was too little, or I would have to use other types of liquor in order for the flavour to be noticeable.


Over the weekend, my boys and I made a batch of cookies for their cousin to bring home. I used my newly acquired Cinnamoroll cookie cutters since she's also an avid fan of this cute Sanrio character. I followed the same recipe as the one I made using the Pooh cutters. I divided the dough into two portions and kneaded in some cocoa powder for one of the portions, to make Mocha'. I love how the cookies turned out, aren't they adorable?!



and here's a slice of the cake for you...

I hope this will prompt you to reach out for your whisk to give this recipe a go :)