Give me "Samoa" that Cake!

Oh birthdays...I love them! Especially when they involve my wonderful boy or my girls! This past Saturday we celebrated Rachel's birthday and I have to say, I wasn't sure I could top what I did for Gen's birthday! Rachel also wanted something very specific and I wasn't really sure I could make that happen either.

But I did...

Enter the tastiest cake I've ever made...

The (total knockoff of a Girl Scout Cookie) Samoa Cake:

Man, it looks like a hot mess in these pictures (and, honestly, it kinda was a hot mess, but there's a reason for that) and it fell apart when we were trying to cut it, but who the heck cares when it tastes just like a Samoa cookie.

If you guys don't know me very well, you might not know that every year I tell myself not to buy Girl Scout cookies from the nanner girl, but every year, she gives me that sad puppy-dog look and her big blue eyes guilt me into buying 3 or 4 boxes of Samoas and 2 boxes of Thin Mints. (As far as I'm concerned, they might as well not even make any of the other cookies. They don't exist to me.) And every year I manage to consume all of the boxes I've bought within two weeks. Sometimes even one.

That said, I knew I had to make this cake taste perfect. To be fair, Rachel didn't ask for a Samoa cake specifically, but she did ask for a chocolate coconut cake and when she said that, all I could think of was the delicious coconut and caramel mix of my favorite cookie drizzled with chocolate on top of shortbread. Sigh...when are those damn girl scouts going to take my order?

I started off by making my own version of the cookie to see if I could get it right, but I used dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate and they didn't taste quite right. I decided to call them Samo-eh's and let E take them to work. Everyone in his office (with the exception of one guy who doesn't like coconuts) liked them fine but agreed that they weren't quite the same.

I perfected my recipe and was all set to go to the grocery on Thursday, but then it started storming like crazy. Another fun fact about me: I HATE thunder. I will not go outside while it is happening and I will not do anything involving me and water. I think I was told as a kid that you shouldn't take showers or baths while it's thundering outside because I won't go near the stuff. I am also pretty sure mom made me try to take naps during storms because they ALWAYS make me sleepy if I'm at home.

So, I made a plan for Friday. I was all set to go. But then I took the nanner kids on a little excursion. On bikes. Down the road. Which was dumb. Everything was going well at first. But then nanner girl, bless her heart, stopped short in front of me and I had to swerve to miss her, causing me and nanner baby to tumble to what could have been our collective doom. Thankfully we lived and he was totally fine. I sustained some minor scrapes, some extensive bruising and a (still) very painful shoulder, elbow and wrist injury.

As it was my dominant wrist that got hurt, making this cake proved to be a challenge, not only to my baking skills, but also to my ability to push through pain. Hence why the cake is a little less clean looking than I would like.

Anyway, here's what's inside. Sorry I don't have a picture of this, but it was rather messy once we cut into it.

It's similar to Gen's cake in that it has layers and the whipped cream but I changed some stuff up a bit.

Layer of dark chocolate cake, layer of dark chocolate icing, layer of homemade shortbread, layer of coconut caramel mixture (just like the cookies...ahhhh), layer of chocolate cream cheese whipped cream. One more layer of that topped with a final layer of cake and SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS...

You've got the interior finished. Now, ice it with the chocolate frosting, cover with chocolate fondant, sprinkle it with leftover shortbread and coconut, drizzle with chocolate.

I'd recommend keeping this in the fridge until you're ready to eat it. The problem lies in the coconut mixture. I have to find a way to keep it softer, even in the fridge, because as it was, it was nearly impossible to cut.

It sure tasted good though...I even got marriage proposals from some of my friends. Although Evan didn't seem amused by this, I took it as a compliment.