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Happy Birthday

My birthday (which, oddly enough, comes along every year or so) is a perfect opportunity for me to stretch my cake-baking muscles. This year I decided to concentrate on my newfound interest in pecans.

The cake is a three-layer genoise (egg foam cake) which I soaked in peach preserves made from Pearson Farm peaches. I filled in between the layers with a combination of chocolate ganache mixed with pecan meal. The icing is genoise, which I topped with Ellis Brothers pecans of the Elliott variety.

To complement the cake, I made a batch of espresso ice cream.

I like to pass out small treats during the day. I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies to which I added pecan meal. The cookies had extra body but were still very soft and extra moist, a very pleasing effect overall.

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