My birthday cake

I LOVE Almond Joy candies.  I love the combination of the sweet coconut filling covered in chocolate and the crunch of the almond.

Not sure where that big air bubble came from.

So as my birthday approached, I knew I wanted to make my own cake.  See I have control issues and this is the only way I knew I'd get the cake I wanted.  And I wanted the cake to taste like an Almond Joy.  I scoured my cookbooks in search of the magic combination.   The chocolate almond cake from Confetti Cakes was an easy choice.  I searched and finally found a cream cheese coconut filling.  Then figured I'd add chopped almonds, a chocolate buttercream and top the entire thing off with chocolate ganache.  It sounded perfect as I was planning.  But...

The filling wasn't the taste I was looking for...See the filling was essentially a cream cheese frosting with a cup of coconut tossed in for texture.  And that's exactly what it tasted like.  It picked up some of the coconut flavor but not what I was looking for.  The cake was good.  All the parts worked together but it wasn't the Almond Joy I was hoping for.

Oh well, I guess that just means I'll have to try again.  And I realized it wasn't going to taste like how I wanted it too as I was putting it together so I was a little disappointed while I was finishing it off...And maybe I was little down cause I was aging...But either way I didn't even bother to decorated it.  After I put the ganache on I stuck it straight in the fridge and that's when the big ugly air bubble formed.

But it did taste good...Even if it wasn't my Almond Joy.