A Glutton for Punishment...

This was the general consensus when I decided to be in charge of dessert for my Gamma's 91st birthday. As I've said before, if there's an event in my family, I am automatically in charge of cake. I really wish my family could learn to like other desserts, I'm very sick of cake. I don't really even like cake. Anyway...

Since I am constantly baking and decorating, this has forced me to try and one-up myself. I am getting incredibly bored of piping flat designs on cake. So I decided this time I would do something different, and since it's for my very favorite grandparent, it had to be spectacular. The project: individual cakes, frosted with chocolate ganache, with everyone's name on their personal cake. 15 of them. It was a much larger undertaking than I had anticipated. By some. I actually had to make my mother stop inviting people.

First, I should tell you that if you are planning to do something like this, you should be making test batches until you are satisfied. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to EAT every test batch you make. Unless you're in my family, where giving away cake is considered a form of blasphemy. This is where the punishment part comes in. I spent a week eating cake. Never again. Also you need to make sure you have room to store them.

After all was said and done, the final product came out okay. It wasn't exactly what I wanted -- after all, I am a perfectionist -- but it was more than enough to impress my family. Now all I have to do is come up with a way to out-do this:

I don't know why this won't rotate correctly...

An expensive venture, a lot of anxiety, a lot of yelling... but there's one.  Filled with our usual chocolate frosting.