This cake was ordered by our good family friend who was throwing her good friend a pink baby shower. We decided to go for an all out saccharine sweet baby pram cake, inspired by cake guru/ manolo blahnik of cakes Ron-Ben Israel. but of course mine is a very humble version of his.
We laid our groundwork by first planning on how to shape the cake so that it looks like a pram but yet sturdy enough to hold up the weight of the pram hood. after carving ganache-ing and covering the cake in fondant, i began prettifying the cake before crawling into bed at 2am. when i woke up the next morning, this was what i found.
my nightmares have come true. the cake cracked right down the middle of the pram, and it was irreparable. i was too shocked (or maybe too sleepy it was 730am in the morning) to let out a scream.
sigh.
we got complacent this time and forgot that cakes are not metal and that there is such a thing called gravity. we hadn't had enough reinforcements in the cake to hold up the hood on one side and only one side of the cake was bearing all its weight.
back to re-baking the layers and starting from scratch again. this time we carved the cake slightly differently and put in place the necessary reinforcements. we were lucky this time that we had some leeway in terms of timing and we managed to get back on our originally cake schedule and i managed to finish it up.
Everything was as per normal, the cake was all ready by 11am to be sent out at 6pm yesterday evening. So it had been sitting in my air conditioned kitchen for a good 7 hours.
my husband called me at 615pm telling me that he was at the venue but wondered if he should deliver the cake. i wanted to smack him because he obviously SHOULD?!!
until he told me that the cake was cracking in the middle AGAIN. i almost collapsed, both with fatigue and depression. i told him to drive the cake back home and i will see how i can try to repair the cake since it was impossible to start over.
long story cut short, our good family friend insisted that they will take that less than perfect cake and i truly appreciate that gesture, but at the same time i feel terribly awful that i have to face a day when i actually send out a cake that is not in good condition.
here's a picture of the cake when it got to the venue with a crack just below the hood, which shall serve to remind myself that i can and should never overestimate the fragility of cakes : (
the cake was structurally not sound, but we think we know where we went wrong and we cannot wait to try it out again. we will and we shall overcome gravity in this cake!
Again, my thousand apologies to Lyna, Angie and Shermane for a less than perfect cake.
cake was red velvet with oreos.
my husband called me at 615pm telling me that he was at the venue but wondered if he should deliver the cake. i wanted to smack him because he obviously SHOULD?!!
until he told me that the cake was cracking in the middle AGAIN. i almost collapsed, both with fatigue and depression. i told him to drive the cake back home and i will see how i can try to repair the cake since it was impossible to start over.
long story cut short, our good family friend insisted that they will take that less than perfect cake and i truly appreciate that gesture, but at the same time i feel terribly awful that i have to face a day when i actually send out a cake that is not in good condition.
here's a picture of the cake when it got to the venue with a crack just below the hood, which shall serve to remind myself that i can and should never overestimate the fragility of cakes : (
the cake was structurally not sound, but we think we know where we went wrong and we cannot wait to try it out again. we will and we shall overcome gravity in this cake!
Again, my thousand apologies to Lyna, Angie and Shermane for a less than perfect cake.
cake was red velvet with oreos.
Dear Veron,
ReplyDeleteSometimes the most beautiful cake does not even measure up to the effort and love you have put into doing what you did.
We loved your cake (despite what you called it 'an imperfect cake' - we thought it was just a hairline).
The red velvet flavour was just perfect for the occasion. The teddy bear and butterfly was almost immediately kept by Lyna (haha). I wonder why?
We loved/loving/will love your creations and artistic insight. Keep it up. We can't wait for your next one.
Angie
Thank you very much for being so supportive and understanding! Definitely hope my next attempt will be better.
ReplyDelete