The Cat is Drawing Pentagrams

So, one night we decide to give the cat some catnip. What a great idea right? Then we found a ball of yarn, and thought, 'What an even GREATER idea?'. Well, we put some tidbits of catnip in the ball of yarn and let Arry take a wack at it... which she did...

The next morning we found this.

The cat is drawing pentagrams in our breakfast room.

No more catnip for her.

In unrelated non-cat news, I was craving something horrendously bad for me.

 Hence the monstrosity depicted below. I don't know if you can see, but that pan is probably 2 or 3 inches deep.

Godliest nachos ever. We couldn't finish them. I couldn't even bear to look at them the next day.

Housemate approved.

 So, being the mischevious chocolate-loving female I am, I decided to be a little selfish this year and er... not share my birthday cake. I made it a few days in advance, then finished it off after my party. Granted, I did spend some given birthday money on the ingredients getting like 3 different kinds of chocolate.

All I can say is... Holy !*@& Can I atleast make something look DECENT?

 The first time I made cakes it looked "special" and I just passed it off as "quirky". But SERIOUSLY FOR THE 5th TIME CAN I JUST MAKE SOMETHING THAT LOOKS SLIGHTLY AESTHETICALLY PLEASING FOR THE LOVE OF GOD?!

I used a simple chocolate cake recipe which called for coffee (couldn't resist). Then made a dark chocolate ganache for the middle layer. Then for the outer I used a raspberry white chocolate mousse... which apparently didn't thicken enough or I used too much liquid.. I don't know. What I can say though is that this cake brought me some hellish developments.

This cake had me crying by the way. CRYING. I had to blend and strain raspberries,without a "cheese cloth". Tried a paper towel, nope. Coffee filter, nope. By this point I was crying. Then the boy came in and suggested a tea strainer and a coffee sieve, both to no avail. I was, shamefully, still crying. He disappeared for a few minutes, then came back out, pulled out one of the shmancy tea bags he had from the theater, then proceeded to squeeze small amounts of seeds through the tea bag (mind you it was made of silk, really fancy schmancy, was probably some chai flavor no one in the house really liked). Anywho, it worked. Finally. Love that boy.