Cecily's Birthday Extravaganza
Cecily and her birthday extravaganza cake - White cake with Strawberry frosting Cecily has been planning her birthday party since May. No seriously May. My one task regarding the birthday was to make the cake. Now she specifically said cake. When I asked if I could do cupcakes she said she really wanted a cake. She also told me that she wasn't a fan of chocolate. So in May the wheels got turning. Cecily always does things in a big way so I wanted her cake to reflect that. At the time, I thought it was going to be a small group of people - 15 at most - and I would make a fab layer cake. The vision: white cake, white frosting with fondant polka dots in pale pastels.
As the months passed she ordered invitations and I wanted to make the cake look like the cake on invitation, but she said that was too busy. So I started to think something more understated. Perhaps white cake, white frosting with swiss dots and a beaded border? Then she said that she wanted strawberry in the cake. If there is one thing I HATE more than anything in a cake is fruit in the middle of the layers of cake, UNLESS it is in the layers of a delightful Dominican cake. So then I felt like my vision for the cake was screwed.
I decided to make the cake layers early in the week and freeze them for two reasons: 1. I wanted to get the baking out of the way and 2. The cake is more moist when you freeze it right after baking. I used this new recipe that I also used for my birthday lemon cake. This recipe calls for reverse creaming where you mix all of the dry ingredients in with the butter until is it pebbly then you add all of the wet ingredients. It makes for a very fluffy almost - dare I say - box consistency. I made one ten inch, one eight inch, and one six inch cake. I meant business. The cakes came out perfectly and I had just the right amount of cake flour for the project. I felt really confident about my time line for the cake decorating process and I was excited to finish the cake.
The day before the party I started nosing around for a strawberry icing recipe because I was not going to put fruit in the layers PERIOD. I came across a Sprinkles Bakery recipe and as you recall I thoroughly enjoyed their buttercream when I was in LA. I decided that was the buttercream I was going to make. Saturday rolled around, I removed the cakes from the freezer - I learn from my mistakes - and I started to have an anxiety attack about the cake. Suddenly it seemed like it was not going to be enough, after all she was expecting 50 people. SHIZA!
So, because I am a TOTAL freak attack I end up running to my super chi chi grocery store without aisles to get more cake flour and a couple other last minute items. Of course my exclusive and majorly over priced local grocer does not have plain old cake flour, they have self rising flour. I search and search and then read the back of the self-rising flour box and it says that you can interchange the two. But how is that possible really? Desperate I grab it and head home to make even more cake. While the new cakes were baking in the oven, I moved onto the buttercream. I made 2 full batches of straight up vanilla - for the layers - and two of the strawberry. Which incidentally only required 3 tablespoons of strawberry juice - from frozen strawberries - and really infused it with a lot of flavor.
The cakes smell ready so I open the oven to door to find...CATASTROPHE! WHAT!?!?!? The cakes fell. The center of them were sunken in. Never in my life... Well this would not do. How the hell can I add those to the most amazing cake I have ever made in my life? Not going to happen. So all this time wasted not decorating and assembling the cake waiting for these damned sunken cakes to sink. Shoot. I literally wanted to scream.
At that moment Ron arrived to a very harried towel wearing freak attack and I promptly told him, "talk me off the ledge." My vision was thwarted and this cake was going to be small and lame-o. Ugh. I was running around like a mad woman - which seemed to be a theme around these various birthday parties - putting in earrings, throwing on a dress, frosting a cake, putting on some make-up, throwing on another layer of cake rushing to the finish line almost in tears that this cake was going to be a DISASTER. I went into my stash of royal icing flowers and grabbed some daisies, threw them on and threw the swiss dots idea out the window. I had to run.
My stash of royal icing flowers. Yep, I made them all with my own two hands.In 3 inch gold stilettos, a black cocktail dress, and a 3 tier cake in hand Ron and I set off for the bar.
Thankfully, it was dark in that bar because the cake was a little lopsided and the frosting was not perfect by any stretch. When the candles were on it it looked really pretty, but I was still not thrilled with the presentation. Then the rumblings started... people were saying it was the best cake they have ever had in their lives. That is was moist and dense and fluffy all at the same time and the frosting was amazing and I suddenly felt at ease. Cecily was thrilled and her mother - who is very hard to please - was gushing. So after a stressful day it ended up being quite a success - who knew?
The birthday cake and the birthday girl in all of their glory
Next... a cocktail party. Wowza. Does it ever end?
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