Hello everyone! I am back from a little vacation in Ottawa Canada to visit my son and family. My daughter was with us so we got to celebrate the twins' birthday together for a change. (It was a few days early, but since we are hardly ever together in the same place, we went for it.)
I wanted to try something new for them so I made a double barrel strawberry chocolate drip cake with chocolate sails.
I filled the cake with strawberry cream cheese icing and covered it in cream cheese icing. It was chilled in the fridge overnight. The ganache was allowed to cool slightly and then poured over the top of the chilled cake. I used an off-set spatula to push it over the edges. This was only my second attempt at a drip cake and I was very pleased with how it turned out. (Much better than my first attempt!)
The chocolate sails were not too difficult. I melted dark chocolate in the microwave and spread a dollop onto a piece of wax paper. Small binder clips (clothes pins would work too) were used to hold creases in the edges of the wax paper to make a wavy pattern for the sails. You could also set spoons or other small utensils under the wax paper to change the shape of the sails if you don't have these types of clips. You have to do this step before the chocolate starts to set up, so work fairly quickly.
I wanted three sails so I made an extra one just in case of breakage when I removed it from the wax paper. It worked out quite well, but I spread the chocolate a little too thin. One of the sails broke after being pushed into the top of the cake but it didn't ruin the look I was going for, so I left it alone.
For decorations, I used several types of chocolate candy that I knew were favorites for them: Whoppers, peanut butter cups, Junior Mints, mini Hershey bars. I used some of the strawberry cream cheese icing to make swirled mounds of icing on the top and also behind the sails to help hold them upright. I made a couple of large roses too.
There was a LOT of cake left over, so I brought the bottom layer home with us, redecorated the top with more ganache drip and more sails. I took it to my daughter at work on her birthday to share with co-workers. It was nice to surprise her and also, to have another try at the drip and the sails. I used a few pink candy sprinkles on the second version of the cake.
I hope you liked this post....I enjoyed making and decorating this cake--probably because it was for two of my favorite people. Happy birthday to my twinnies!