I do tend to say yes to a lot of requests, I can never work
out whether it is me being greedy because I love the thought of another new
project or whether I am simply stupid. I was recently asked to make a couple of
big occasion cakes – a 70th birthday and a wedding cake. “Sure” I
said “Why not?” I said. The fact that I have never done cakes on that scale
before should have perhaps been the prompt to say no…but I reeeeeaaaaalllyyyy
wanted to make them.
So, the wedding cake attempt was…ok. It looked fine, the
bride and groom were over the moon and it tasted pretty darn good. But I was
not happy with it. I could see all of its flaws and wonkiness, although
miraculously no one else seemed to notice, they were glaringly obvious to me
and that was all I could focus on. It is only the pressure that we put upon
ourselves that seem to break us. The bride was not even too bothered about
having a cake at all, just a tasty slab of something sweet dumped on a table
would have done. But I couldn’t let that happen now could I?!
I found the baking bit easy (I tried the recipes out
beforehand, classic Victoria sponge and lemon sponge) the handmade sugar paste
roses were also easy, if a little time consuming, building the tiers were fine
and even the bit that I was the most scared of – the icing – went very smoothly
(boom boom). It was the shaping and straightening of the cakes that let me
down. Lack of experience but a lesson learned should there ever be a next time
(unless I learn to say NO by then). I could have done with a spirit level I
think, my eye definitely let me down, but with the only one to hand being a cement
splattered one from the depths of the shed, I had to do without.
However, it was cut up in a matter of seconds and devoured
and enjoyed, which is the main thing. No matter how much I keep beating myself
up about it!
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| It tasted good at least |
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