Nephew's Birthday Cake

So my nephew's birthday is today but we surprised him Wednesday night , with a dinner and cake party.  His g/f Katie took him out Tuesday night so I could finish his cake.  He wanted a banana, chocolate mousse, strawberry shortcake and it was a success....well sort of a success!!  Oh how upset I was that his cake wasn't perfect.  I thought I had it nailed since his practice cake came out PERFECTLY!!!  Here is the practice one...

 Ok so the cake was perfect when I poured the chocolate ganache over it....I turned around to clean up a bit and when I returned to the cake, it turned into FrankenCake!!  eeeekkkk!!  What a disaster!

So I attempted to fix it....really no biggie...right??  This is what it looked like when I hid it in the fridge for the night.  It was fixed!!  Whew, that would have been a disaster!!

Until the next day when I peeked at it about an hour before the surprise guests were to arrive....OMG, what a disaster this was!!  How would I fix this?  I wouldn't, I'd cry and explain that it was a perfect cake once it was put into the fridge the night before and this is what it looks like approx 1 hour before the party Wednesday night.....

Oh well at least it was delicious!!  It got an "EPIC FAIL" on appearance but on taste, it was given an A++!!

So that was my attempt to make my sweet nephew a perfect birthday cake....he is crazy enough to still think it was simply perfect in taste and LOOKS!!  Someone needs to talk with him!!  ROFL