Epic Reunion

Do you ever get the feeling that some desserts are just meant to be epic? That was the feeling I got when I came across this while browsing smitten kitchen. I was thinking maybe father's day or independence day, but in the end this epic cake was created the day after all the fireworks. Reunions are supposed to be epic too. Today I got a call from one of my best friends, the friend I always include in my labor-intensive, crazy experiments in the kitchen. She is home from the mountains for two days, so we invited our families to have a barbecue dinner, all with the sole purpose of creating dessert. Specifically, a four-layer tower of delicious with whipped cream in between and the guarantee of a sugar high for hours, not to mention all kinds of fun with the KitchenAid.

egg yolks and sugar

waiting for the chocolate to cool

We set to work, munching on blueberries while we mixed and beat and generally made a mess of the kitchen. Things tend to turn out delicious but messy when the two of us get in the kitchen, and today was no exception.

just too tempting not to try some chocolate-covered blueberries

mmmmmm chocolate...

We marveled at the incredible volume of cake batter that 12 eggs can create.

before adding egg whites

Folding in the egg whites

We used two of my pans and two of hers, and that was the first big mistake. Quality is sadly lacking in the pans that I think are older than I am, but happily the taste is still as good as ever. This we found out when we scraped a strip of cake that was supposed to come out with the cake off the bottom of the pan. Since it seemed determined to detach itself, we had no choice but to pop the entire mess right into our mouths. The second big mistake was an oversight from long experience in the household. Kara was certain that no parchment paper existed in the house because there never had been (It turns out a recent purchase was a Costco-sized roll of parchment paper - oops). We skipped the paper and went straight to the greased pans. Don't skip the parchment paper.

aww don't they look so pretty. I didn't take any pics of the mess of taking them out sans parchment paper.

We pulled the beautiful layers out of the oven and promptly destroyed them getting them out of the pans. Not that it mattered - the family never cares about presentation - and the cooks deserved a pre-dinner, pre-dessert treat.
After an hour in the freezer and joint family dinner, we were back in the kitchen assembling the layers. We decided on whipped cream with cocoa and vanilla, though perhaps we added the cocoa a little late. It still looked cool and held the layers together like a champ.

Perhaps a little messy on the layers, but a little whipped cream can fix all of that

You can never have enough whipped cream. It covers lots of mistakes and holds together everything quite nicely. That brown whipped cream didn't make the cut for the top - we bought more cream and made some white. A solid top layer edged over the sides, and it was time for decoration.

It's like the fireworks we didn't have this year!

Preparing for the big outdoor reveal

You would never have guessed that Kara is one to draw stick figures in art class. The blueberries and strawberries topped the cream in style. The cake looks nothing like the original - we go for flavor over presentation, and mess over finesse.

Epic, messy, amazing post fourth of July masterpiece

It was delicious, and there are even two pieces for tomorrow.