The cake - a first attempt

I decided to have a practice run at a birthday cake today. I went shopping for all the random ingredients that do not normally find their way into my trolley, such as baking powder, vanilla essence and lots of types of sugar.

I didn't even realise there was so many types, or that such vast quantities went into a cake!


I then searched through my various kitchen gadgets and discovered I had a never used cake making attachment on my food processor. I even have a weighting scales.

So, I consult my recipe. I am prepared for all sorts of complex instructions and I have supplied L with enough toys to get me through at least 20 steps of adding, mixing and other baking type actions (I'm even prepared for kneading!). Imagine my surprise when I discover that what I need to do is mix everything and put it in the oven. I must be missing something, it can't be that easy can it?

So, I mix everything.....




put it in a tin....


and stick it in the oven.

I am deeply suspicious at this point, it really can't be this easy.
However, in the hope that it is, I move onto the icing. L is a huge Peppa Pig fan, so the plan is to make a Peppa cake of some sort. For today, I'm aiming for a pink cake. So, I need pink icing.

This is a little bit trickier, but it is basically a case of mix it all up and put it on the cake. So I mix it.....
and its pink, that's something I suppose.


It's time to think about taking the cake out of the oven. The recipe said it should have come away from the sides of the tin and spring back when you press the middle lightly. At the first look the middle still looks suspiciously unset, so I close the oven door and cross my fingers.

Ten minutes of prayers to the god of cakes and careful observation and it passes the spring test. I take it out. It looks surprisingly cake like!


I then have a panic, I don't have a wire cake cooling thingy!! I manage to improvise and put an oven shelf on the hob.

Still looks very cake like!



It then needs to cool, which takes for ever, and I almost lose interest in the whole icing idea.

However I manage to stick with it. I decide to cut it in two and put jam and cream in the middle. The icing is hard enough to get to stick to the sides, I think I need a different type of icing that is firmer and moulds a bit. Supposedly you can get it in a ready rolled state, but I couldn't find any of that. Possibly as I don't know what I was actually looking for.

Anyway, here is the final cake. Not bad for a first attempt, if I do say so myself. It actually tastes delicious. I don't know why its taken me so long to attempt. A large piece of it will go to work in the morning for tasting, I'll report back with their opinion :-)


I think I am still on track for a suitably fabulous birthday cake, I just hope today wasn't beginners luck!

To update, everyone at work is still alive and all plates were cleared!