Making this cake yet again, this time without the ganache on top (because I won't be there to cut it, and cutting through the ganache is a little bit of a hassle). For (deep breath) my advisor's daughter's best friend's birthday, a day before my advisor's daughter's wedding. (Congrats, Jen!)

Experimenting with the decoration. It turned out well enough, although this picture highlights a couple mistakes: The slant on the lettering is inconsistent (I noticed even as I was doing it that I changed the angle every time I wrote a t; I'll have to keep an eye on that the next time around), and the arc on the dots is a bit off. Oh well! Still looks pretty good.

Simple but fancy-looking chocolate sides. Turned out well. Made on a rectangle of mylar, then pressed into the mousse. Next time I'll use a slightly taller rectangle so that the chocolate reaches the edge. I might also try to make it a little less dense. We'll see.

I kind of like this lighting and angle on the lettering. Except it looks like Megan is not quite parallel with the other two lines. Oops! Oh well; it shouldn't be too noticeable in the time it takes to start cutting the cake, and once you start cutting it, all the decorations will break and fly all over the place anyway, and then no one will know!