Chocolate ganache cake

Since we planned to go to Lincoln for Thanksgiving, I decided it was the right time to try out a recipe for spreadable ganache I found a couple of months ago. I really wanted to use it because of the texture I had seen on cakes made with that ganache, but I have always put frosting or fondant on cakes and didn't quite know what I was doing. I made three versions of the ganache: white chocolate, milk chocolate, and dark chocolate ganache. The dark chocolate was really very bitter, and I wasn't sure it would appeal to a large audience. The white chocolate was really just...underwhelming, so I settled on the milk chocolate for this cake.

The ganache has to sit for several hours at room temperature, bringing it to a consistency a lot like peanut butter. I made a chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream filling and put it in the fridge while the ganache was setting up. When I put the ganache on the cake, it was pliable at first, but the temperature of the cake cooled it quickly and it hardened a bit while I spread it. Just because I had it, I put some white chocolate shavings on top of the cake and put it back in the fridge overnight. When we cut into it about six hours later, it still hadn't come completely back to room temperature. Right out of the refrigerator, the ganache provided a weird sort of protective shell around the cake. I have read that it will keep cakes very moist and that some people put it under fondant for this purpose...now I know why.

I tried--many, many times--to like the ganache. I just don't really think it's that great. It's ok, but I am more of a frosting girl, apparently.

Since there were going to be a lot of people there, I also made carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and Gage made an apple pie from scratch. I helped him put together the apple filling, but he made the crust and it was perfect--I was really impressed!