I made this chocolate cake with chocolate and raspberry icing as a going away present for my favorite lunch lady. I was proud of myself for making my own chocolate frosting (from cocoa, not from chocolate blocks) and the raspberry frosting was really good, but I'm afraid it probably got pretty sweet for her Japanese palette. I never heard what she thought about it, but I think even some Americans would've found it too sweet, so it's a safe bet. Design wise, it's classic but well-executed well enough, I think. I really liked the contrast between the pink and brown.
My next two cakes I think mark my "leveling up" in cake making. I played around with inverting chocolate and vanilla to create a color contrast. The first was a French vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream. I got to practice my wilton rose and ball techniques, and for the first time tried my hand at cornelli lace. Admittedly cornelli lace needs a smaller tip on the pastry bag. For the second cake I was mostly using up the extra frosting so that's why it's so close to a repeat. The inner layer of ganache filling was mixed with nutella to spice things up a bit, but otherwise the flavors are identical. I tried an antique geometric style decoration but I lack the perfect hand for geometry, and something about my buttercream recipe is lacking the professional smoothness and crustiness you need to get really nice looking lines.
Someday I'll figure out how to make that crisp Italian buttercream you see in the fancypants bakeries. I can't speak for how it tastes, since I've never actually eaten one, though I suspect the smoothness have something to do with meringue powder.
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