WTSIM - Chocolate glazed orange ganache filled star cookie cake

What do ya know...I made a layered cake! That makes it eligible for 'Waiter, there is something in my....layered cake', an event from Johanna, The Passionate Cook and Jeanne, Cooksister, hosted by Andrew at Spittoon Extra.
It's actually a mini-cake I made for my father-in-law's 60th birthday. So unfortunately I cannot show you the actual layers. To make the 11 x 11 cm (4 ½ x 4 ½ in) cake I used some chiffon cake that was left over from another recipe (still have to blog about that one) as cake layers, filled them with a very dark chocolate ganache flavoured with some orange peel. And sealed the layers in a chocolate glaze. Decoration is simple butter star cookies that I glued to the cake with some ganache.
Because I used very bitter chocolate the ganache wasn't very sweet. If you like a sweeter taste use chocolate with less cocoa content. The same goes for the chocolate glaze.

Orange ganache

100 g (3 ½ oz) bittersweet chocolate (70%), finely chopped
100 ml (3 ½ fl oz) whipping cream
¼ orange peel (only the orange part)

Bring the cream and peel to a boil and allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Pour over the chocolate and allow to stand for a few minutes. Stir the mixture until it becomes a nice thick ganache. Allow to set for a few hours before using.

Chocolate glaze (from Chocolade by Patricia Lousada)

90 g (3 oz) bitter chocolate (70 %), finely chopped
60 g (2 oz) butter, at room temperature, cut in small pieces
½ tbs light corn syrup

Melt the chocolate, butter and syrup for the chocolate glaze. Pour a little bit over the cake and spread it out in order to fixate the crumbs. Pour the rest of the glaze over the cake, helping it going down the sides by carefully tilting the cake a little bit.

Star cookies (from The Ultimate Cookie book by Catherine Atkinson)

makes 9-10

60 g (2 oz) butter
25 g (1 oz) sugar
90 g (3 oz) flour

Preheat the oven to 180°C (355°F) Cream the butter and the sugar. Mix in the flour. Knead it through to get a smooth dough. Roll out the dough between two sheets of baking paper to about 4 mm. Chill for about 10 minutes. Cut out stars. Transfer the stars to a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes or until just starting to brown. Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. Transfer to wire rack to cool down completely.

To assemble

Cut 2 squares of 10 x 10 cm (4 x 4 in) out of the chiffon cake. Spread one of them with a layer of ganache. Place the other square on top. Spread ganache on the top and the sides (if the ganache is too firm, warm it up slightly by popping it in the microwave for just 3-5 seconds on half power). Allow to firm up for about an hour. Pour the chocolate glaze over the cake. If necessary, help it spread with a spatula and/or by tilting the cake. Allow to firm up for about an hour or until it doesn't look shiny anymore. Glue the cookies to the sides and top of the cake.