Birthday cake

So the other night was Sean's moms birthday. Since I had to work all day and wouldn't be able to help Sean cook dinner (which was some sort of Moroccan lemon chicken thing with some mango chutney thrown in. FUCKING AWESOME), I volunteered to make the birthday cake.  What I made was this: http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/11/tiramisu-cake.  Oh. My. Gawd.  Delicious.


Here comes the but...

Now, I don't know about ya'll, but I see baking as a learning process. I make it the way the recipe says to (more or less) then decide what I want to change.  This time was no exception.  Firstly, I would make twice the icing. I think it could of used more filling, and I use every bit.  Secondly, my cake didn't absorb as much of the espresso syrup as I would have liked. I didn't use cake flour, I used all-purpose, which might have contributed to this.  Lesson learned, I will pop for the cake flour next time around. My solution for both these problems will be simple - make it into four layers. More filling, more absorbency, and presto, problem solved!

I also started contemplating what this icing would be like on chocolate cake and immediately started drooling.

And here's a teaser for what's going to emerge next from the pastel  covered walls of our kitchen: