3 things I learned making my first drip cake

I envisioned a homemade drip cake for Miles's first birthday party. Three layers of gluten-free chocolate cake, covered with vanilla frosting dyed to match the light green grocery store sheet cake we bought for non-GF guests. A mess of French macarons, marbled chocolate bark, and GF chocolate-covered pretzels perched precariously on dark chocolate ganache spilling from the top.

(Essentially, the time I've spent on Pinterest lately merged with all the "Great British Bakeoff" we've been bingeing, my quest to make this cake being the result.)

It's so opulent-looking. Almost like there's only so much sweet bounty the cake can hold before things become sloppy (but only just-so). I'm quite proud of how it turned out -- although this was the third bake! The first, a practice round since I didn't want to put any unnecessary pressure on myself the night before the party. The second, baked the day before we canceled the party due to a fever on M's part. The third, created the night before the rescheduled party. (Ask me when I'm going to bake a cake like this again.)

While I wait for all this sugar to leave my system (of course we ate each bake!), here are three things I learned making my first drip cake:

1. Cut corners wherever you can. The punch this cake packs is in the decoration. I used box mix for the cake, frosting out of a can, and French macarons from Trader Joe's freezer section. What a gift. 
2. The drip ratio is 50/50: The recipe for the dark chocolate ganache "drip" is 50% dark chocolate chips, 50% heavy cream, combined using the double boiler method. For cake #3, I used a 1/2 cup of each and had enough to cover the cake, and use to adhere extra macarons and pretzels to the cake stand.
3. Everybody needs to chill out. Each element of this cake decoration benefitted from at least a few minutes in the refrigerator. I chilled the cake layers after baking, after the first round of frosting, and kept the whole thing in the fridge until it was party time. The "drip" ganache benefitted from almost an hour in the refrigerator before I applied it to the cake. I made the chocolate bark ahead of time (this recipe sans candy canes) and stored it in the freezer until the last minute I needed it.

Of course as soon as I swear up and down I'm never baking a cake like this again, what do I see on Instagram but...

Have you made a drip cake? Would you try one?