The Cake.... that ate my day!

Today I baked a cake..... The most complicated cake in the known universe I'm sure!!  Basically this cake should be made over 2 or 3 days...and I tried to get it done in 1 afternoon, not because I like a challenge, but because that's all the time I had to give it.......well that, and the fact and I didn't read all the way to the end of the recipe before I started!

Red Velvet Cheesecake - I found this while 'pinning' one day and thought it would make a lovely centerpiece for my afternoon tea party.......  It comes from a very talented Julie Ruble's blog Willow Bird Baking     and as I had never tried this cake before, a test run seemed like a good idea....

I started this at lunch time and finshed at 6.10pm tonight in a complete rush, the decorating is not that flash as I was rushing, and the chocolate ganache wouldn't set and the cream cheese icing was too soft as well!

So here it is, in a few steps, along with some of my thoughts....

I changed it to my version of a stock standard cheesecake instead of a baked cheesecake, due to egg allergies, a baked one has 3 eggs,  and I've always been told I make a nice cheesecake anyway.

The crust is made from Oreo biscuits and is EXTREMELY sweet!!  I would have to change this if/when I make it again, it's very nice but just to sweet.

The cake... oh boy the recipe called for a lot of red colouring, which of course I didn't have enough, so I used some red and some pink!
My cake rose in the middle, as cakes do.  But the one in the original photo has I nice flat top to decorate, not quite sure how that is achieved....the recipe doesn't say cut or trim it.

All to put together...a badly decorated, but with more time it would have been better!..lol..

My crust kinda split when I added the cake on top, so I needed to have trimmed it a bit, again the recipe didn't state this, and re-reading it I should have coated the inside of the crust with some ganache which might have help it hold together.....

 It tasted divine!!...but very very sweet. 

Now I'm not sure if it's right for my afternoon tea or not, after eating a slice of this I did not want anything else at all and of course I have planned a have a few different cakes and sweets for my afternoon tea, so I don't want people having one slice of cake and not be able to try anything else!!

Any thoughts? 

of course if I make it a day or two before and it sets a bit more, I might be able to cut smaller slices maybe?

You can see the orginal cake on my Pinterest account here