Birthday "Cake"

This year's birthday was a mixed bag of meh, ugh, and YES.

The meh: It was mostly "just another day".  I worked, M worked late, I didn't sleep well, and I made my own cake.

The ugh: The kids fought most of the day.  There was some yelling, a few tears, and a couple of time outs.

The YES: I didn't cook, I bought new jeans, I received a number of birthday texts and emails, we had pizza for dinner (and for a change, I ordered the kind I wanted), and the "cake" was awesome.

So let's talk about cake.

Technically, it wasn't a cake, but a dessert.   I made a recipe that I had Pinned over a year ago.  It's titled Brownie-bottom Coconut Chocolate Cream Cake.  I've been on a coconut kick lately, so this sounded amazing.... and it lived up to its delicious title. I won't include the recipe, because it is not mine to share.  I will say this is probably one of the most complex recipe I've ever attempted.  It wasn't difficult, but it was time consuming.  I made the brownies one day, the coconut & chocolate layers another (about 6 hours apart), and the whipped cream the day it was served.

Layer 1: Brownie.  Any recipe will do.  I used the Hershey's Ultimate Brownie Recipe.  Of all the fancy brownie recipes I've tried, it's my favorite.  Next time I would omit the chocolate chips.... it just seemed like a bit much.  

Layer 2: Coconut cream.  Y.U.M.  I went the extra mile and ground down the coconut in the food processor.  It makes it a little more fine and less stringy.  Worth the extra 3 minutes.  Sprinkled between the brownie & the coconut cream are bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolate chips.  A-mazing. 

Layer 3: Chocolate cream (it's a mousse).  Essentially this is a ganache with whipped cream folded into it.  I never knew that was how you made chocolate mousse.  This may be very dangerous knowledge.  

Layer 4: Whipped cream topped with toasted coconut.  The one thing I did not like about this recipe was using gelatin to "stabilize" the whipped cream.  I think it was too warm when it was time to add it to the partially whipped cream, and I ended up with bits of unflavored gelatin floating in the whipped cream.  Not horrible, but it randomly ruined the mouthfeel of the dessert.  

Pros: Amazing taste, not too chocolate-y or coconut-y, looks fancy. 

Cons: Takes a long time to make, gelatin bits in the whipped cream, and the brownie layer was pretty heavy.  

Verdict: I would absolutely make this again.  Next time I would leave out the chocolate chips in the brownie, halve the amount of brownie in the bottom layer, and possibly leave out the gelatin from the whipped cream.