Black Pearl Layer Cake

Wow, I feel as though I've really been pumping out the birthday cakes! It's wonderful, as each cake brings me one step closer to mastering them.  You'd think someone who calls herself a baker would be better at pies and tarts and cakes.  Really, the only thing I can do reliably is make cookies and brownies and the odd candy concoction.  But I digress, it was my mother's birthday, and a big one at that. Forty, 40, the big 4 - 0.  So we celebrated with Indian food and wine, totally my mom's style. We sang an enthusiastic birthday tune to a candleless cake and capped off the night with large slices of this unique and titillating confection.

This cake kinda blew my mind.  When mom shortlisted it for her birthday options and left the rest up to me, I knew immediately that this was her cake.  It's unique and very interesting, while still maintaining a classic chocolate cake texture.  To look at it, there is nothing amiss.  But to taste it is totally different!  Ginger! Black Sesame! Wasabi!  It's crazy-town up in here.  All together you get a riot of flavour, hidden in an unassuming chocolate cake facade.  It's a rare and distinctive gem in the birthday cake world.  I must point out that the texture of this cake was incredible, in fact it was the best textured chocolate cake I've ever had.  If I wasn't in the mood for the asian flavours this cake could be adapted to a coffee, or mint, or just plain chocolate.  This is a winner in so many ways.

Baking notes:
-While making the chocolate ganache the instructions say to wait until the chocolate is room temperature to add the butter.  In my experience I added the butter as soon as the sesame seeds and syrup were added and the chocolate was already a little too cool to melt it, so don't wait until it "comes to room temperature" because it already is.
-Watch the baking times on the cakes closely, I monitored them by the minute after 20 minutes, and they took about 24-26 minutes to bake.

-Super easy and super delicious!

The recipe for Black Pearl Layer Cake can be found on the epicurious website.

63/569