Sunday, September 27, 2009

Last night a cardboard-cake-base saved my life

Well...not really. And it wasn't last night either. The long awaited pictures of H-izzo's cake! Isn't it lovely? I admit, the side frosting job was a little shoddy - but by the time I got around to frosting it, I had run out of ideas.

The "deets":
-yellow butter cake layers doused with liquer
-sandwiching layers of whipped cream and local blackberries
-topped with a dark chocolate ganache and more whipped cream

Yum.

But let me explain this whole "saving my life" story. This is a pretty small cake - probably smaller than a catalogue envelope (5" by 9"), I wanted to keep it small, but dense and full of flavour (success!). Handily, it fit on my lovely Epicurean "Handy" cutting board (picture a thin, flat, wood-composite cutting board about the size of a catalogue envelope with a 4" handle on one end - like a small rectangular pizza peel) and I had been steadily shuttling it in and out of my fridge while assembling. I had put together all the layers and had inserted a few skewers for support (wow! what a hidden lifesaver) and was JUST about to frost - when the unthinkable happened.

I dropped it. On the floor.

I think I was being too cavalier in the kitchen; whirling around my small space with cutting board in hand - when I looked away for a split second when I heard it.

*splat*

I looked down, and all I could see was the top of my cake and a ring of whipped cream around it. My heart stopped.
But it started beating again when I realized - "hey, it's still upright!" It had landed as perfectly as a dropped cake could. The impact caused some of the filling to spurt out, but otherwise, it was intact. Thanks to that cardboard base and, I suppose, the skewers.
With a shaking hand and beating heart, I quickly finished decorating the cake and let it rest in the fridge until presentation time.


There's really nothing like a cake with fresh fruit - it's so underrated! I'd be tempted to make a traditional mango cake - but I don't trust myself around ripe mangoes. They'd never make it to the cake stage.

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