Why did I offer?
Mr B's sister was celebrating her 60th birthday this weekend. I didn't want to get roped into organization or catering - it seems churlish to decline to help when asked - so I decided to head off any potential requests by offering to make a cake (or cakes) - I have no idea how many people will be there and suspect neither does she as the invitation process has been random, so three cakes in decreasing sizes stacked up: chocolate mud cake, pumpkin and orange cake, coffee cardamon cake
That is going to look pretty mad but should cater for a variety of tastes in cake... I have invited her DiL to add the decorations. Ellie is creative and has a good eye for such things, so I only have to get the cakes made and covered in ganache or butter cream and Ellie will take care of the rest.
So far.... not so good. I managed to overcook the first cake. Not burned exactly but not moist. It is in the freezer while I contemplate my options : recycle it into 'pudding' at some later date and start from scratch, OR or make a second one the same (but not over cooked), cut the top off the dry one and sandwich the two together with loads of saliva inducing citrus flavoured butter cream - and cover it all with more of same.
Me being me, I suspect when I get home from work it will be 'start again' the dry one won't be wasted, it will just get 'covered in custard and called pudding'
Remember that phrase you are going to see it again (more than once) in the Baking Reposts that will be made in coming months.
Monday - post completion .... The relative sizes of the finished cakes didn't exactly lend themselves to stacking (and the middle one didn't look like a pumpkin - see rhs of photo below) but the 'team' insisted on stacked cakes anyway.
Stacked they got. No photo. The party was in a downstairs bar in the local rugby club. No windows. Low, wood beamed, ceilings. Dim. Dark in fact. Anyway, two of the supporting piers buried in the bottom cake decided to slide sideways (no diagonal bracing, design error on the part of the cake engineer). Slow collapse - no noise, no drama, just someone looked round later and the top layers were resting against the wall. Coffee icing and white chocolate orbs all over the place.
Cake was 'rescued'. Someone cut into the bottom layer shortly after that and we never got to the light the candles and sing happy birthday bit. DiL's small grand-daughter (I'm 3 nearly 4) arrived part way through the afternoon and sang a solo Happy Birthday Nana Gail. Think 'Happy Birthday Mr President' and Gail pronounced as if it's 2 syllables, and you won't be far off the end result. She can't possibly have heard of Marilyn Munroe could she - at 3 nearly 4 - ? Breathy voice, cadence, tune, all of it.
I would very happily have scoffed all those cakes - collapsed or not.
ReplyDeleteA recording of the Happy Birthday song rendition would have been good it seems..
ReplyDeleteYou can't beat a cake. Especially an homemade one. 😋
The cakes look good, well done, sounds like they were alot of work. Would the supermarkets have had any to buy that are reasonably fancy looking?
ReplyDeletesome of the best tasting cakes of mothers many baked cakes were the ones that collasped, or fell, and were so good. i was so relieved. i thought you meant you made those 3 types of cake and put them on top of each other in a stack like a weddding cake. now i see you meant stacked, like what mother called layer cakes. some were 2 layers, 3 layers and even one was 5 thin layers. learned another word. good idea to volunteer for what you wanted to do and not be pushed in something you did not want to do
ReplyDelete😟😜 they had been in tiers like a wedding cake! Then it all went sideways. The little coffee cake was about 4 or 5 layers. i just made one deep cake then sliced it apart and stuck it back together. It too had a go at the layers sliding sideways. All in all this was clestly going to go sideways.
DeleteMaking cakes is the hardest part of the party I think I can make a cake a hundred times. But the one time it’s for something special I’ll ruin it. Every time!
ReplyDeleteI would of definitely opted for finger foods. Dips, with sliced veggies. Chips sandwiches
Oh so much more easy. And if I was running out of time. I’d get a cafe to make a tray of sandwiches.
Good on you for giving it a go I say. Doesn’t matter cake always tastes great
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteLordy... and lawks. (It's awful, but I had a spontaneous - nervous - giggle at the image of sliding sections... in sympathy for you, dear friend...) Bet no one complained at the eating of them though! YAM xx
You brought back a funny memory of something I once witnessed - we attended a wedding where the bride insisted on a three tier chocolate cake, even though she was told it would be difficult to keep it in one piece. Of course, it was a hot day and the cake collapsed - in slow motion with the whole lot of us watching on in horror! It still tasted good though :)
ReplyDeleteThe finished cakes look great - and sound delicious. For my brother's 67th birthday on Sunday my sister-in-law decorated a cake with a model him in his racketball kit. (It's a game he's taken up with enthusiasm in retirement ). She generously awarded him a thatch of the blond hair that has been largely missing since he was in his thirties!
ReplyDeleteCheers, Gail.
That's funny!
DeleteThey sound delicious and I'm sure they went down a storm.
ReplyDelete