Tags
#baby, #baking, #birthday, #birthdaycake, #cake, #creative, #family, #firemansam, #friends, #hullabaloobellparties, #party
I attempted to make some buns a few years ago for a girls night in I was hosting. I mean, how hard can it be ? My friend bellowed from the other end of the room “who’s made these ?” “I did” I declared proudly, she answered; “Urgh, well don’t bother next time”. Ok, I admit that baking isn’t my forte. Lack of concentration, failure to follow basic instruction however there’s plenty of people both willing and able to make exceedingly good cakes so I thought it best to leave it to the experts. A few years on, my life has changed. With my son Tiffin turning 2 on Thursday, it’s been my mission to make him a birthday cake. Not just a standard, plain, boring cake… But a FIRE ENGINE cake !!!! Realising that his birthday is quickly approaching. I decided that asking for help was the way forward. A good friend from church confidently said “come over to mine and I’ll show you how to bake a cake !” So straight away and maybe unexpected to her I accepted her offer and the following morning turned up on her door step, son in hand as a willing pupil ready to be taught the way of the cake. X2 methods, the ready mixed ingredients to make a small round came then the standard cake mix to make a lemon drizzle cake. Both went wrong. The middle of the lemon cake didn’t taste so bad, but the presentation was cirtainly not the pristean fire engine I was hoping for ! Much to her dismay and my amusement, we passed them off as a bad job. Though a story we will laugh about for years to come ! 5 days before the big day and it’s time to get serious. A cake tin kindly lent to be by my friend Amy after discussing the previous night with my friends how my plans for using a small loaf tin and concluding my idea was simply not going to work ! Another friend from church kindly offered to help and offer her oven as mine has conveniently broken. We agreed that I would go over to her house and bake the cake before attempting to ice it myself at home. Today cake day! Lets hope this time is more successful, slightly apprehensive though am confident that this could work ! I headed down to my friends house and took advantage of her huge kitchen surfaces and brilliant mixer which made it all so quick and easy that even I could manage !! Though no baking powder, what appeared to be a vital ingredient – the cake alas did not rise to it’s full potentiol in the 4″ tray Still confident that it was tall enough when cut half and stacked on top I mixed my butter icing and spread the jam. The hight was pitiful and most cirtainly not a fire engine ! With time not on my side as my sons birthday sea side trip in the morning and babysitting my niece in the evening My Sister in law kindly offered to make more cake after she pointed out the fact we have no oven so she baked it at home and I collected the rest of the sponge the next day ! At last ! Enough cake to stack to make the perfect fire engine – in theory !! The last and final stage was the icing, the cheat blocks of roll out icing, just ROLL & STICK how hard can it be ???
A dusting of icing sugar on the work top as advised, I’d got this sussed ! I confidently rolled out the red block of icing to the appropriate width, carefully lifted it up and to my horror, the centre of the icing stuck to the side. The stress mounting as I rolled it back up now covered in white specks of icing sugar – NEVER AGAIN !
Re rolled and with no more patience plonked the ripped red icing on the cake. This was the disaster was expecting. My friend also agreed with a polite ‘oh dear’ Yellow strips on the side, some blue lights and bumper stuck on and blended in with my husband eager to dive in and make the ladder … you could actually tell it was a fire engine ! Though not to the standard of those pictured on pintrest ! However not as bad as it could have been for the first attempt ! Convinced that it had gone wrong, I refused to cut it up and wrap pieces up the traditional way into the party bags as did not think it would be the fluffy birthday cake the children were hoping for so instead we took it to church the next morning. ‘Its brilliant, I’ve had 4 pieces already!’ Declared a willing sampler. Reluctantly I tried it, and it was actually good !!!!! There’s not much of it left now so I’m guessing that’s a good thing !! So glad it wasn’t a wasted effort and the clap my son gave it made it all worth the chaos !
The question is now, to bake or not to bake !?!