This is a cake I made for one of my boyfriend's work colleagues. He goes to art classes so his wife was keen for me to do an art inspired cake. It was getting close to my holiday and I had loads to do but I enjoy doing the cakes so I agreed to do it.
It always seems that when you are the most pushed for time, everything goes wrong. I seem to have problems with portion control, in general as well as when I'm making cakes for other people, and the last cake I made was a little small. I thought to myself that I wouldn't make that mistake again so I made a cake big enough to feed forty people. Unfortunately the cake was for a dinner party which would only be attended by 12 people!
Aside from the monster size, it turned out dry. I knew there was something wrong with the batter when I put it into the tin but being in a rush, as ever, I thought it would be fine. Lesson one, always trust your instincts. I worried about it when I came to ice it but I thought that if I loaded it with sugar syrup it would be OK, and I didn't have time to make another one anyway.
I iced the cake, but the next day I decided I definitely couldn't deliver it to my client and resolved to make another one, a little bit smaller this time. I just love putting myself under pressure! Once I finished the cake, even though I was missing a few brain cells and some hair, I felt much better for baking another one and getting it right. I knew I would've fretted about delivering something I knew to be substandard. All's well that ends well.
Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 11:25AM 
