Chocolate Cake. Chocolate Buttercream. Blueberry Ganache.

So, it was my dad's 50th birthday on Saturday! Woo hoo! And even though he got a cake last week, I baked him another one for his actual birthday. That's just how we do things in the our family. One birthday? Psh! You need two cakes! So in contrast to his complicated, extremely decadent and delicious pumpkin pie cake last week, I made him a simple, but effective, chocolate cake with a blueberry ganache filling.

Well, to start off, the cake was not just your average run of the mill cake: it was a cake using a recipe entitled "Chocolate Better Than ? Cake," (courtesy of the Cake Doctor).

So I feel like a lot of people photograph their ingredients, so I thought I try it out. It doesn't look as good as the actual cake though. And if you look on the right, that's the cookbook. I HIGHLY recommend it!

And while I may be able to think of things better than it (Just because, you know, there are lots of fabulous foods out there that I have tried, and there might just be some that, you know, depending on your mood, you might think are better) it is definitely superb. And my dad loves it. It has a great texture, great chocolate-y flavor, filled with chocolate chips, and it gets the job done.

There was much debating over whether to fill the cake with blueberries, but after I found a recipe for Blueberry Ganache (courtesy of Red Shallot Kitchen), there was no need to put them in. This ganache. Wow. It was RICH! Basically, it is: dark chocolate, blueberry sauce, heavy cream. And the dark chocolate and blueberry combo is definitely a keeper, and on a chocolate cake- de-licious.
So I put a TON of ganache on this cake, as you can see. Like, basically the whole recipe.

Now, the Chocolate Buttercream frosting, courtesy of Joy the Baker- baker extraordinaire and an inspiration to my old sister (me too, but not quite to the extent she is to her)- is am-AAAAAAA-zing.

The secret ingredient: Ovaltine. (For those of you who, like me, are like uneducated or something in the world of drink mixes, it's a powder that can be used like hot chocolate mix or like Nesquik for chocolate milk) It's brilliant, wonderful, full of flavor, and I have no idea where she found it, but who ever came up with it, I would like to shake hands with! (Unless they are some undesirable figure who has disgusting looking hands, but I really doubt they are. In that case, I would slightly nod my head to acknowledge them, smile, then back away.) It was a great compliment to the dark chocolate rich ganache and chocolate cake, that's a lighter chocolate to counteract the richer chocolate but still be chocolate-y-o-licious.

I thought this was a pretty nice action shot of our lovely KitchenAid mixer

Overall, a pretty bang up job and a delicious cake that was hit! It's one of those simpler cakes that just kinda hits the spot sometimes, not too complicated, but yet delicious. My only complaint? It turned out a little lopsided.

- Audrey