Aztec Cake

It was one of those days that everything went wrong as if trying to give me a hint that I really should not be in the kitchen. I was inspired by the elegant Aztec Cake from Cocolat, but my version had a mind of its own and the end result turned out to be quite different.

I underbaked my chocolate Genoise causing it to fall and I could only use half of it. Rather than braving a second genoise attempt, I baked a chocolate butter cake layer to complete the dessert. Since I did not bother piping the meringue for the dacquoise layers, they looked very uneven when they came out of the oven. My buttercream ran out in the middle so I had to whip up some chocolate ganache to go in between the layers. My stenciling looked terrible; and to make matters even worse, when I tried to salvage the situation by piping a filigree buttercream border, it looked as if I was trying to decorate the cake with angel-hair pasta!

The only positive thing about this cake was the incredible taste. So, ignore the overdone look if you can and consider this: chocolate genoise, chocolate butter cake and walnut dacquoise layers alternated, chocolate ganache between the layers and coffee buttercream to cover it all. After a night's rest in the refrigerator, the flavors blended and the walnut, coffee and cinnamon laced dacquoise softened enough to provide just the right amount of crunchy contrast to the coffee-soaked cake layers. Splendid! Although I am not a coffee drinker, I loved this cake. My older daughter went even further and said that it was the best cake I ever made :)