Baking a Cake

My department at work is hosting a cake contest tomorrow. Any cake is fair game, as long as it is made completely from scratch. Scoring is based on presentation and taste. Since I'm in culinary school, I have a feeling that some people are expecting big things from me. What no one knows is - I'm not a baker. In fact, I'm only 1 week into my baking class at school and so far, all we've made is bread. So, in reality, I'm on the same level as all the other novice cooks at work.

I searched quite a few recipes before I settled on this one:

Thanks to Marcus Samuelsson's cookbook, Aquavit, I will be entering the contest with Soft Ginger Cake with Mascarpone Mousse.