Cakecrafting
It’s always been a regret of mine that I haven’t spent enough time making cakes because there’s nothing that can inspire the feeling that a cake brings other than, well, cake. How the cake does this without actually telling everyone what (or why) it’s doing it is clearly one of life’s many mysteries. Is it the presentation? The look of a cake? The way the cake tastes? Whatever it is, there’s something about it that manages to captivate and hold the attention of an audience like no other dish can. Perhaps something, well, magical happens when the cake is baking in our large metal heat machines.
But, like I said, I do not make many aforementioned cakes. Regret? Yes. This regret is doubled when birthdays roll around. Then I wouldn’t find the whole process of trying to not only put together a satisfactory cake but to prepare a cake that will dazzle all my relatives. It’s the relatives that are the key – if they’re not dazzled then I’ll slip down a couple of places on the family league tables.
Like most of my kitchen escapades, this one started with some cookbooks. I figured that Cadbury’s would know a thing or two, so fetched a cookbook I had from them. I was right; they had a good looking “Easter Nest Torte” on one of their pages. I’d remove the mini eggs off top and replace them with Smarties; I figured I would get double points if I used a Nestle product to garnish a Cadbury’s recipe. The torte is basically two layers; one a chocolate sponge and the other a mousse. This cake in particular had a chocolate coat around the edge, made by slathering melted chocolate across a pre-prepared strip of greaseproof paper and then leaving the paper (wrapped around the cake) to set. The top was sprinkled with chocolate flake-like (go mad on a block of chocolate with a chef’s knife and you’ll basically make flake) thing (this is the nest part of “Easter nest torte”) and those mini-eggs (which I wasn’t using)
I promised myself that I would not leave the cake to the day of the birthday again this year, but cocked it all up and had to do it on Friday morning. Even worse, my first attempt at the cake was a miserable disaster. The sponge layer baked fine and tasted great (just moist and springy enough thank you very much) but when I came to wrapping the chocolate coat around the sponge the whole thing fell apart. I’d folded the greaseproof paper over until it reached two inches, and this left me with a piece of paper that was far too stiff and rigid to possibly want to wrap itself around the sponge in a nice circle. After the chocolate was set I was left with an oddly hexagonal shape. Well, a hexagon that had just been repeatedly smacked around the head with a baseball bad, but a hexagon nonetheless. Into the bin (a horrible waste, I know, but I can’t leave the calorie-packed cake lying around tempting me) it went, then a quick walk back to the supermarket for more butter. Oh, running out of ingredients sucks, by the way.
Second attempt, much better. The sponge was, once again, delicious and the chocolate coat was manageable. The single layer of greaseproof paper was fraught with problems too, it wasn’t strong enough to hold the chocolate and stand up straight, but I managed too fix this by getting it into the fridge quickly and holding it in place with my hands until the chocolate firmed up a little bit. The mousse was easy to make, but time consuming.
I started the second attempt at about 5pm, when I knew that the cake needed to be ready for about seven. I would have done it earlier, but I had to go to the opticians for most of the afternoon. This was not nice, and the extra element of being against the clock probably meant that some of my cake suffered. This is also why I have no photos of it. As soon as it set, it was sliced and eaten. If I hadn’t of messed up the first time I would have done some, I promise.
But, even with all that adversity, the cake went ok. Everyone was impressed. It looked good. I know I could make it look better if I had a second attempt, but I certainly didn’t let myself down with it. And my little brother enjoyed his flashy chocolate cake for his fourteenth birthday – most of his friends have to make do with a basic vanilla sponge with a bit of jam and some royal icing bought from the local supermarket.
But, like I said, I do not make many aforementioned cakes. Regret? Yes. This regret is doubled when birthdays roll around. Then I wouldn’t find the whole process of trying to not only put together a satisfactory cake but to prepare a cake that will dazzle all my relatives. It’s the relatives that are the key – if they’re not dazzled then I’ll slip down a couple of places on the family league tables.
Like most of my kitchen escapades, this one started with some cookbooks. I figured that Cadbury’s would know a thing or two, so fetched a cookbook I had from them. I was right; they had a good looking “Easter Nest Torte” on one of their pages. I’d remove the mini eggs off top and replace them with Smarties; I figured I would get double points if I used a Nestle product to garnish a Cadbury’s recipe. The torte is basically two layers; one a chocolate sponge and the other a mousse. This cake in particular had a chocolate coat around the edge, made by slathering melted chocolate across a pre-prepared strip of greaseproof paper and then leaving the paper (wrapped around the cake) to set. The top was sprinkled with chocolate flake-like (go mad on a block of chocolate with a chef’s knife and you’ll basically make flake) thing (this is the nest part of “Easter nest torte”) and those mini-eggs (which I wasn’t using)
I promised myself that I would not leave the cake to the day of the birthday again this year, but cocked it all up and had to do it on Friday morning. Even worse, my first attempt at the cake was a miserable disaster. The sponge layer baked fine and tasted great (just moist and springy enough thank you very much) but when I came to wrapping the chocolate coat around the sponge the whole thing fell apart. I’d folded the greaseproof paper over until it reached two inches, and this left me with a piece of paper that was far too stiff and rigid to possibly want to wrap itself around the sponge in a nice circle. After the chocolate was set I was left with an oddly hexagonal shape. Well, a hexagon that had just been repeatedly smacked around the head with a baseball bad, but a hexagon nonetheless. Into the bin (a horrible waste, I know, but I can’t leave the calorie-packed cake lying around tempting me) it went, then a quick walk back to the supermarket for more butter. Oh, running out of ingredients sucks, by the way.
Second attempt, much better. The sponge was, once again, delicious and the chocolate coat was manageable. The single layer of greaseproof paper was fraught with problems too, it wasn’t strong enough to hold the chocolate and stand up straight, but I managed too fix this by getting it into the fridge quickly and holding it in place with my hands until the chocolate firmed up a little bit. The mousse was easy to make, but time consuming.
I started the second attempt at about 5pm, when I knew that the cake needed to be ready for about seven. I would have done it earlier, but I had to go to the opticians for most of the afternoon. This was not nice, and the extra element of being against the clock probably meant that some of my cake suffered. This is also why I have no photos of it. As soon as it set, it was sliced and eaten. If I hadn’t of messed up the first time I would have done some, I promise.
But, even with all that adversity, the cake went ok. Everyone was impressed. It looked good. I know I could make it look better if I had a second attempt, but I certainly didn’t let myself down with it. And my little brother enjoyed his flashy chocolate cake for his fourteenth birthday – most of his friends have to make do with a basic vanilla sponge with a bit of jam and some royal icing bought from the local supermarket.
posted @ 3:27 pm
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