Can you blow out 102 candles?

June 9th was my Great Grandmother's 102nd birthday.

I was asked to make the cake which was exciting and nerve wracking the the same time. I suppose i should tell you that I am the first in my family to attend a school for baking and pastry but I am not the first baker. My great grandmother was an amazing baker and many of our favorite family recipes were passed down from her to my grandfather (her daughters husband) who then took up the baking cause. Until recently he was the go to baker of the Artisan Assassin clan. When I was asked to bake the cake I knew that, while my great grandmother would be happily content with whatever I put in front of her, My grandfather would be a hard man to please... He was an engineer before retirement, a profectionist by nature and (i think) secretly perturbed that he has been robbed of his baking crown.

Here is what I made: A two layer chocolate devils food cake with a ganache icing from the A.I. On Baking book. (this cake recipe always turns out. Favorite!) I know it sounds very plain and simple - because it is. But is is also delicious!

Here is what happened: Upon my mothers request and against my better judgement I only leveled on of the two cakes. This means that my layers were disproportionate. YIKES! as soon as a cut into that sucker I know my grandfather would say something like "Is this your signature make? that one layer is a half size bigger than the other." which is exactly what he said. He also made a comments about how the cake wasn't very decorative. Come on, really? its ganache... But my Great Grandmother (who hasn't eaten more than two bites of something since her mid nineties) ate her whole slice!

Rating: I think I got a "Meh, I could do it better" from grandpa and at "Yumyum great!" from the original Artisan Assassin.