In which I bake a cake

It's been an exciting week here in Berkeley. I've gotten to do some organizational work for the lovely Ms Sile (nothing excites me more than organizing!), I attended a fabulous knitting soiree at Entrez! (the cutest little shop in Oakland) and tonight I'm off to knit with my girlfriends. Who could ask for anything more? (Well, maybe a date would be nice... but that's neither here nor there). So in honor of tonight's gathering I decided to complete my next cake out of The Cake Bible. I got this book for my roommate, Lindsey, for her birthday, and I've been working my way through the cookbook, so far I've made:

-Lemon-Poppyseed Pound Cake
-Deluxe-Double Vanilla Pound
-Chocolate Bread
-White Spice Pound Cake
-Golden Butter Cream Cake with Royal Honey Buttercream Frosting
-Sour Cream Butter Cake with Royal Honey Buttercream Frosting

and today.....

Chocolate Cherry Almond Pound Cake

This has been by far the most labor-intensive of the cakes I've made, in fact it's taken me about three days to put it all together. First you start by making brandied cherries:Next you toast whole hazelnuts and grate them in the food processor:

And then you chop a lot more chocolate that you would think to:
Then I put it in all in the oven and said a little prayer....



So it looks pretty delicious... let's just hope it tastes proportionally good to the amount of effort it took.

Next up on the lineup: Golden Almond Poundcake!