A 13 Layer Cake...13 for the 13th...

I often make my Grandma's Stack Cake...and it has between 4 and 8 layers...so I thought I'd apply the same principle to Scout's birthday cake and go for 13 layers...


...all my cakes start with flax seed goo...for a clear goo...I just boil a couple of spoonfuls of whole golden flax seeds in about 1/2 cup of water...

...and strain the slippery goo...

...for real, traditional birthday cake flavor...I used a mix (Duncan Hines is vegan)...and just whipped that up using the directions on the box, except that I used the flax seed goo for the eggs...
...I wound up with a little bit less than a quart of batter...and I need 13 cakes...so I'll need to make 2 mixes...

...so I scooped 1/2 cup...

...into each of my 3 cake pans...oiled and lined with parchment...

...just scooped it out of the cup pretty well...so that I got the full measure in each pan...and spread it around evenly with the spatula...

...bake until lightly browned...it doesn't take long...only about 10 minutes...

...turn the cakes out of the pans onto a cooling rack...I left the parchment on them while they cooled a little bit...

...then peeled the parchment off...washed the pans and started over...

...gather your ingredients for the vegan ganache...
3 cups of vegan chocolate chips
3 cups of almond milk
3 Tbs. maple syrup

...that's it...easy-peasie...just heat in a double boiler...

...for a really long time...it will finally melt and come together...it's still a little bit lumpy here...

...but it was perfectly smooth when I started spreading it on the cakes...

...just a couple of spoonfuls on each layer...and spread it around evenly...you don't want to go too heavy here as you don't want it to soak through your thin little cakes...

...just keep layering and stacking...

...just over half way there...7 layers...and one entire cake mix used...open your second box and mix it up...and bake 6 more layers...

...ooops...I broke one...

...all done...I can't quite see all thirteen layers here...I must not have them exactly centered...but I promise they're all there...

...for an adult party I'd probably leave the cake just like this as I think the layers and the dripping ganache are quite pretty...

...but for a teenage birthday party full of boys...we needed to go the extra mile and add a layer of vegan buttercream frosting...

...which is just Earth Balance - powdered sugar - cocoa - and soymilk mixed to a frosting consistency...I don't really use a recipe...

...there...all done...and it only took about 2 1/2 hours...

...it just looks like a regular chocolate cake...

...the moment of truth...the boys were pretty impressed when we cut into it at the party...

...and I can count all 13 layers in this slice...

...I don't know if we'll try for 14 on the 14th next year or not...