Tuxedo Cake DISASTER

I agreed to make a cake for my friend's daughter's school's Cake Walk (got that?). She asked last night and I went through all the cookbooks that haven't been moved to Pittsburgh (living without Baking with Julia is such a hardship) and selected the Tuxedo Cake from Rebecca Rather's "Pastry Queen" cookbook. She is hands down my favorite cookbook author and every single recipe I've ever made from her cookbooks has been fabulous beyond words. I was enchanted by the picture of the tuxedo cake -- creamy whipped cream frosting with chocolate ganache drizzled over the top so it runs down the sides. All on top of a chocolate cake. Yum. 

I should have made the cake last night and save for today my cake-related errands, like finding a box to transport it in (an impossible feat in the District of Columbia) and getting the gigantic quantity of whipping cream for the frosting . 

Alas, I did not. So I had four hours to bake the cake, frost it and get on the road to make the hour-plus drive out to the school and I did not give the cake time enough to cool. I frosted it when it was too warm and when I tried to move the cake into the box, it crumbled. It crumpled. It fell completely apart. I know better. 

The dog was thrilled. He licked lots of whipped cream off my shoe. My friend is going to Safeway for a cake and she wasn't even mad. 

I call mine Tuxedo After a Bender Cake. You definitely can't present a cake like that to a Catholic School cake walk.