Lots of Cake

This weekend was my little brother's birthday so he got a nice and chocolatey chocolate cake. The cake contains both cocoa and chocolate and the icing is chocolate caramel ganache.



It was also my friend Josh's housewarming party so I brought a coconut cake iced with Italian meringue buttercream. I've never made that sort of icing before and I am now hooked. So smooth and rich and not too sweet. I was very nervous about the buttercream breaking as I've heard that can be an issue but I used the warm up the bowl with a hot towel if it starts to curdle trick and it worked like a charm. Whew! It was great mixed with some toasted coconut. Leftover chocolate caramel ganache was used to sloppily spell a silly message on top (I was running late).