Impatience killed the cake.

Things have been so hectic lately that I barely have time to just bake something for the hell of it. This past weekend, I decided that I wanted to test out some new flavors for Layers NYC.

During my breaks at work, I like to stroll through the aisles to look for any new and interesting items that might have come in. Whole Foods is always adding new offerings and I, most often then not, pick one up to experiment with. My two favorite places in the store are the baking aisle and the produce department. On this particular day, I was walking though produce and noticed that the first batch of cherries had arrived. I couldn't resist and that's where it all began.

I decided to make a Tahitian vanilla and cherry compote which came out so good that had I had vanilla ice cream, we would have had a situation! Instead, I used the compote to make a buttercream. As for the cake flavor, we have been talking about offering an almond cake and I wanted to work on that. After a couple of tweaks to the original recipe, we had a winner.

After the cake was baked and stacked with the vanilla-cherry buttercream, I decided that I wanted to cover it in a white chocolate ganache. I had even pictured how I'd like to decorate the cake. I had a problem, though. I didn't have much time to do this because I wanted to bring some for Emma to taste and we had a schedule to keep.

I knew I should have either not bothered with the ganache or not brought some to Emma so I could do it right. Of course I went ahead and tried to glaze the cake before the ganache had time to set and it melted away at the cake. What a disaster! The good news: It didn't affect the taste of the cake and Emma was able to give her seal of approval! The bad news: no picture. Oh, well.