I get a phone call from Sether's the night before Andrea's actual 30th birthday asking if I will be coming over the following day and if I had planned on making anything because if I hadn't he was going to BUY a cake. Ahem, what? First, what about tomorrow night? And excuse me,
buy a cake? He responded with, "Andrea told me he invited you to the out of town guests' dinner and if you weren't prepared to make a cake for the dinner I am happy to BUY a cake." There is that word again.
Now this was coming out of left field. I thought there would maybe be something small for Andrea's actual birthday, but then I thought perhaps they would have a nice evening just the two of them - even though I was on call for the whole weekend. What's more, Sether is my bff from way back. We have been friends for 20+ years - and we are only 22 - and Andrea has quickly become one of my closest friends in this city. Of course I would whip something up for a small dinner party of international guests. No problem.
The issue is that Sethers number one favorite cake that I make is my carrot gingey number. I already made minis of those for the next night so what to make that would be equally as delicious and look fantastic? How about my white cake with strawberry frosting? Done and done.
So on my way home from work the day of the dinner I pick up a couple of items and head home to my laboratory and start cooking. Everything is going so well! I have made this recipe a million times before what could possibly go wrong? Well for some reason this time the cake smells a little eggy coming out of the oven which made me a little nervoso.
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| The white cake that had a really delicate sponge to it. |
I let them cool in the fridge while I crossed my fingers and made the strawberry frosting - special skills and talents... Now this recipe is super easy: shortening, butter, 3 tbsp of strawberry puree, 1 lb of confectioners sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla. Done and done, but lately for some reason the frosting has been separating which is highly annoying when you are frosting a cake. And a 30th birthday cake at that.
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| Getting frosted and ever so slowly separating. (and yes I crocheted that pot holder!) |
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I put the frosting in the fridge and added a bit more confectioner's sugar, but I didn't want it to get too sweet and whipped it again hoping it wouldn't separate so much that it slid off the cake. ARGH! I popped it in the fridge to cool a bit and got ready for the party. I was going to be, shocker, close to an hour late and had no cute homemade royal icing flowers to put on the cake so I resorted to the fab gold star sprinkles I procured the week before.
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| Certainly not my best work, but for separating frosting no my worst. |
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Not too happy with the presentation I thought I will package it beautifully and hope it tastes friggin' awesome and well, it did. It tasted like total, utter, and amazing deliciousness. Light, and sweet, but not too sweet. Refreshing and delightful. Too bad it looked a little sad. But everyone gobbled it up and Sethers was sure to have two pieces ;) Yay for birthday extravaganzas!
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| The cake in transit. |
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