16 Layer Cake for a 16th Birthday on the 16th

A few months ago, I was looking at Bakerella's site with Anna, and we came across her 14-Layer Cake. Anna immediately and enthusiastically said we should make it for her 16th birthday, but with 16 layers. I, in my postpartum and ongoing mental fog, agreed. Honestly, I didn't think the day could possibly come, at least not as quickly as it did. I'm not old enough to have a 16-year-old! Aaaack! I remember too well being 16 and all the raging hormones and emotions that went with it. I'm not ready!!

Of course, the day came. I wasn't sure I'd be able to muster the time or will or ability to get this cake done. I talked to Anna about it, and she, in her usual sweet and unselfish way, told me, "That's okay. You don't have to make it. Just make a sheet cake. That'll be fine." That sealed it - how could I possibly not at least make the effort for such a sweetheart?!? But I knew I couldn't do it alone.

I enlisted the help of the other Anna. (To avoid confusion, the other Anna will henceforth be referred to as Lanna (little Anna) and my Anna will be referred to as Banna (big Anna).

We started with 16 disposable cake pans. Banna and Lanna helped cut parchment paper circles and grease and flour the pans. I'd never used parchment paper before - I always just resorted to begging and pleading to get my cakes to dump out in one piece. Parchment paper works much better.

We spread just over 1/2 cup of cake batter in each pan. That was maybe the hardest part. The parchment paper wanted to slide all over the place.

I was able to bake them 4 at a time for about 12 minutes per batch, so it took less than an hour to bake them all. That's no worse than making cookies. Then we dumped the cakes out of the pans, stacked them up with Saran Wrap between each layer, and stuck them in the freezer. FREEZING BEFORE ASSEMBLING WAS VERY HELPFUL!

The next morning, I made the chocolate sauce to go between the layers. I could have used a bigger pan - it expands a bit while it's boiling. Thank you, Shauna, for your help with this part. It was so yummy - a religious experience all on its own!!

We all got to sample it, and although we all wanted to, only one of us kept screaming for more.

It was Banna's job to keep the screamer happy with mouthfuls of chocolate sauce.

She had mixed success and ended up with chocolate smeared all over her cute white shirt.

Lanna pulled a few layers out of the freezer at a time and got them ready for me to sculpt. Some of them were a little uneven or a little thicker than the others, so I used a long serrated knife to level them out. That's why the freezing was so important. It made them much much easier to sculpt.

Lanna and I kept stacking and sculpting and drizzling, . . .

. . . trying to build a stack that didn't lean too far in any one direction . . .

. . . until, finally, we had 16 layers.

I poured the rest of the chocolate sauce over the top of the cake and spread it up and down the sides. I liked the way it looked at this point, but Banna wanted to follow Bakerella's suggestion to hide all the layers. That way, slicing into it would be a yummy surprise for all the cake-eating guests.

So I iced the cake with chocolate buttercream icing. I put in 16 tall candles, . . .

. . . lit the candles, . . .

. . . and we sang to Banna. We sang our little hearts out.

Notice the 4 sympathetic blows going on behind her.

Banna cut the cake.

Serving it up was touch and go until we figured out how to use my wide, straight-edged scraper to prop each piece against so nothing toppled.

Isn't that a pretty cake!?!

It was so yummy and moist. And it was fun to make!! It took some effort, but I'll definitely make it again.