A Gaggle of Cakes

Hippoboy's birthday is coming up and I am determined to make him a cake.

Let me explain that I am a good, steady baker but not necessarily a very creative one. I have one cake recipe (a very simple scoop and stir in the pan chocolate one)that I make all the time, and one basic challah recipe that gets translated into whole wheat, regular, rich egg bread, and foccaica as the need arises (ha, ha).

I ventured onto epicurious.com in search of a brave new cake. I found a pecan praline cake which looks simple enough. However, it does not look like it tastes all that yummy. Plus, as Hippoboy confided a few nights ago, he would like a cake with multiple elements preferrably, with layers or a creamy filling.

Now, since this cake will be served on Shabbat, and most likely after a meat meal, I am delimited in my choices of creamy filling. Buttercream is out of the question, and I always thought the Crisco-based buterkreem I learned to make in high school cake design was beyond awful, as is the Reddi-whip and Crisco based confectionary of Kosher bakeries worldwide. I could, however, make an acceptable dark chocolate ganache with soy creamer and fill a vanilla cake with it.