A cake fit for a celebration

I've re-written this blog several times this week. Not sure I should be admitting this, after all, you're probably reading it and asking 'really?', but yes, this week has seen several re-writes. Although I've been really busy lately, I haven't put many cakey posts on here and after all, I am all about cake (though cake comes in many guises and with many fillings, so all posts written to date are valid and I'm not rubbishing everything I've written!). I thought I might change that as I have two cakes this week.

I had a request on Friday for a cake: I talked through the brief, what was required, to feed how many, ideas for design... Then the all important question 'when would you like it?'. Tuesday morning came the reply. With a 'you've got 4 days to do it'!!!

Sometimes it's possible to provide a fabulous cake in 4 days, sometimes it isn't. Cakes don't just appear after waving a magic wand! Ingredients need to be bought (whilst I usually have most ingredients, I don't always have everything as I always make my cakes fresh), along with cake boards and boxes and ribbons to make them look pretty. Again, I usually have all of those, but sometimes a quick trip to the cake decorating shop is required.

Then, there's the time it takes to weigh and measure everything out, mix it all together, grease and line the tin, bake, wash up, allow the cake to cool, make the buttercream.... and that's all before you've started thinking about the design, or creating it!

For the design above, I covered the board the day before I placed the cake on top to give it time to dry. I made all of the stars the day before I needed them too for the same reason. These were covered in edible glitter (green, black and silver), though as they were also on wires, they would not be fit for consumption. The design came about as the lady whose birthday was being celebrated was a WI member and the WI's logo was adapted to reflect this. This was painted onto a small plaque of white sugarpaste, in two different shades of green.

I kept the green theme throughout the cake, with the letters coloured in 'Disco Green Kelly' and the ribbons were also green. I placed a single burgundy rose bud on the board to add a little interest and to break the green-ness of the cake up and a cake was born!

There is no such thing to the cake decorator as 'just a sponge' - cakes are an important part of a celebration and if one has been ordered, it has to look the part. Thankfully on this occasion, it did!

Speak to you all soon and happy baking!