Birth Day Cake??

OMG! It is hot. I am uncomfortable. I want this baby out of my body.

We asked the doctor if there was anything we could do to speed up the process, but he just kind of laughed and said that outside of medicine we are out of luck. He did recommend walking a few weeks ago and I have been walking about 6 kilometers a day, sometimes twice. Y and I even climbed the 14 flights of stairs in our condo the other night. After our appointment on Saturday, my friend  sent me a link about a "labor cake".  (Thanks, B!!) Apparently the idea is that chocolate might bring on labor - sounds as good as any other random idea out there and hey, it's cake!

The problem with the recipe in the article is that it calls for both a Devil's Food cake mix and a box of instant chocolate pudding. I won't be able to get either here, at least not without some major searching (my mom, who is visiting, won't let me leave my neighborhood in case I go into labor, so that's not happening) or paying a lot of money for it and then having to wait for it to be delivered. Instead I tried to think up the most chocolatey cake I could remember and I came up with a perfect one, which happens to be Y's favorite!

The recipe is written in the link above (just click on Y's favorite), but it starts with eggs and sugar, flour and cocoa powder, and butter all in separate bowls.

You mix the eggs and sugar for 8 minutes. My mom and I split the work.

Then fold in the dry ingredients and finally the butter.

Throw it in a pan and bake that bad boy up.

While it is baking you have to get cracking on the truffle filling. Melt cream and chocolate in a pan.

Get it so it's nice and smooth and all mixed together.

Beat more eggs and sugar over a double boiler for 6 minutes to cook up the eggs a bit. Pull it off the heat and add the melted chocolate. Beat for another 6 minutes and then cool it in the fridge.

By that point, the cake should be done. It should have pulled away from the pan while cooking, but if it didn't (mine didn't this time), give it some help with a pallet knife around the sides.

Once the cake and the filling have cooled a bit, slice the cake in half horizontally. Wash up the cake tin and then put the bottom layer back.

Cover the bottom layer with half of the truffle filling.

Top with the second layer of cake.

Finish off with the last of the filling and then put it in the fridge for 5 hours. The goal is to have the filling flow down the sides of the cake, so before putting it in the fridge, I give it a few good slams in hopes that will help - it's always worked.

My mom and I ended up waiting 3 hours. Dude, it was getting late and I needed to at least try to go into labor last night. I pulled the cake out of the tin and plated it, but I didn't like how the sides looked.

Once I ran the pallet knife over the sides, I thought it looked much better.

So shiny and sleek from the top.

Then we cut into the cake and gorged ourselves on dark chocolate. Yum. Fingers crossed my contractions start soon - my mom leaves in two weeks!! That being said, I had a piece of the cake last night, one for breakfast and I am about to have another right now. No signs of baby yet, but my fingers are still crossed!!