A 21st Birthday Cake

Pre Decorated Cake

Tiffany's has had its first birthday event.  At my day job (yes, I actually do have one of those, just like the rest of you out there), my incredible employers have a daughter who turned 21 on the 30th of December.  As everyone is away during the Festive Season, I was asked if I would mind supplying the cake for the party.  Naturally, since Husband and I didn't go away this year, I had no problem in doing that as I figured it would be brilliant advertising.  And it was a challenge as it was to be an ombre cake, which I had never had the courage to try.


Now I have to admit, I was a bit nervous as I haven't done a big elaborate cake like this since leaving the food world in 2010.  Everyone around me had 100% faith in my abilities.  I think the biggest stress was doing everything as late as possible to keep it as fresh as possible.  Nothing is as a big a turnoff to me as an old dry cake that tastes as if it was baked last month to the point just before burning and you may as well have used it to make rusks.

White Chocolate Lace Collar

Everyone's faith seems to have been well placed as I managed a soft and fluffy sponge cake, with a chocolate lace collar with only a little difficulty.  I will be honest and admit that at this point, I heaved a sigh of relief and satisfaction when the cake came together.  This was as far as I could take the cake at home, as the last touches had to be done at the birthday girl's house.

Party Packs

Additionally to the cake, I was also asked to make party packs, made up of a brownie, salted caramels and flavoured chocolates, which was a first for me, but doable.  As a bonus, it's given me a whole bunch of new ideas.  Whether they'll ever be used is another question, but I have them, and that's what counts.  I honestly think they came out very cute.

With everything packaged came the final stress of the day.  Bear in mind, December is the middle of our Summer in South Africa, and to transport a cake in this heat, with a fragile chocolate lace collar, is already difficult.  Enter Husband.  I've never seen him sweat as much and as quickly as he did that day.  With every bump in the road I heard him clench his teeth, and suck in his breath with nervousness.  As he explained to me afterwards, as we were driving, he could see moisture form on the chocolate collar, and his big fear was that it would collapse on the way there leaving me to offer a broken cake.  Needless to say, this didn't happen, and the cake came out beautifully after the final touches were made.