Semisweet Chocolate Layer Cake with Vanilla Cream Filling

My last shift before the start of my weekend I received a flu shot.  Not one that I wanted, mind you, but one that I got anyway.  Less than 24 hours later I was laid up on the couch with the flu.  It might be part of the reason this cake bombed so bad, because as you can see, bad things happened.  During the making of this cake I went from perfectly healthy to very sick, all in a matter of hours.  We tried the cake a few days later and promptly threw it out.  It sucked that bad.  Reviews on this cake are mixed, some people hated it, others loved it.  I'm firmly in the hate category, but for a few different reasons.  Oddly the cake recipe on the website is not the same as the recipe I used in the book.  If you follow the online recipe, your results might be dramatically better, let me know!

Firstly, is the matter of the actual cake layers.  The cake was so fragile it literally tore apart in my hands. Strangely this is not a problem I usually have, I'm a (fairly) gentle baker.  I believe it had to do with the cake flour called for, it made the cake way too delicate.  Of course, it could have been a creaming method problem as well, we'll never know.  Second, I take issue with the whip cream layers, which never set up as firm as they could have.  When the cake was placed on top of the whip cream they separated into four (or more) pieces, thus moving outwards and leaving giant gaps in the cake. By the time this happened I was feeling very crummy and I threw the cake in the fridge to set. I made the chocolate layer and left it on the counter, both needed to sit for two hours and I collapsed on the couch.  I never got up that afternoon.  Two days later, when I got around to it, I tried to salvage the now rock hard chocolate frosting by whipping it with the mixer.  This resulted in a split frosting.  I piled it on top of the cake and left it.  Enough was enough, was there a point in salvaging a doomed cake?

We tried a slice, but were totally disappointed.  The texture left much to be desired and the flavour wasn't anything but sweet.  There was an absence of true chocolate flavour in the cake layer and a defined vanilla flavour in the whip cream. Everything felt both cloying sweet and strangely mute.  I tossed it in the garbage, as it was taking valuable space in our tiny refrigerator.  Yes, having a small kitchen means that sometimes treats get tossed.  Sorry. (but not.)

Baking notes:
-I made this cake exactly as outlined in the book.  It's not the same recipe as the one online (even though it has the same name).  Unfortunately I wasted a lot of ingredients in this cake, including 18 oz of chocolate.  So sad.
-I stopped following the recipe when the ganache was meant to be poured.  I was to sick too get off the couch, and tried whipping it the following day.
-Fail, total fail.

The recipe for Semisweet Chocolate Layer Cake with Vanilla Cream Filling can be found on the epicurious website.  (Hopefully a better version, give it a shot and let me know.)

47/569