When I’m doing my real job I am sometimes
unlucky enough to work on late night weekend cut-overs. Today was one of those days. I decided to bake and bring in a cake to make
the whole thing a bit more bearable.
I’m not really a baker; I don’t have the
patience or exacting nature. In a nutshell, I am impatient and slap dash, good
for savoury cooking but very, very bad for baking.
But most people love sweet things so I
thought I’d give it a go. Went to
Nigella’s Feast cookbook and settled on the chocolate honey cake – what’s not
to love, a gooey chocolate and honey cake with charming bees on top. If you want the recipe – here’s the link: Nigella's Honey Chocolate Cake. If I’m going to eat a cake it needs to be one
with substance, I can never see the point of the airy light ones; it’s like
eating fluffy sweetness, what’s the point?
So back to baking. Checked the ingredients, went to the
cupboard, damn, no honey, chocolate or icing sugar. Himself was off playing football so walked to
the veg shop down the road. Honey,
check. No chocolate, no icing
sugar. Around to the 7 Eleven, they only
had the 35g bars of 80% proof chocolate at $3.50 each. Quick brain calculation…
hmmm that would be $28 for 275g chocolate.
Maybe not, it ain’t Haighs after all...
Waited for Himself to get home and drove down to the shops for the
cheaper option. Nine dollars for 3 100g
blocks seemed a little more reasonable.
After some searching also found the icing sugar, nowhere near the other
sugars of course (icing sugar, icing mixture – so many choices!!)
Now back to the important baking
concentration stuff. Butter and eggs at
room temperature, check and oven pre-heated, check. Carefully weigh everything ~sigh~ stupid baking… grease and line spring
form pan of correct size... so exacting, how do people enjoy doing this?? Maybe
it’s because I’m really not a sweet tooth? And so messy! Cake mix from one end
of the kitchen to the other…
The cake mix was looking good, then the
recipe asked for 250ml boiling water.
All of a sudden the cake mix is like thin paint! Is this right?? Surely
it shouldn’t be so loose?? Re-checked the ingredients, yep, all correct. Oh well; may as well keep going now.
Since I was leaving Himself to his own
devices for dinner I decided to make to make him his own
individual cake too* so patty cake at the ready. Poured that first then the rest of the mix
into the pre-prepared tin and into the oven.
Hmm I wonder how long for the cupcake? It
was a long bake for the real cake – 1 hour! So checked the cupcake at 15
minutes. Nope, I think I’ll go for about 35 minutes. Yep, good call, cupcake
done, but real cake still liquid in the middle.
Oh no! I’ve opened the oven! Shouldn’t that be avoided?? I hope I didn’t
just make the real cake sink… Nothing to do but wait now…
Since the cupcake was out I decided to make
the icing. I’d already made the bees so
I could add their stripes as well. My
biggest issue with cakes is icing before the cake is cool (again, impatience)
and then of course the icing slides off the cake and all your hard work is
ruined. I must be strong this time and
resist the temptation. Made the super sticky icing and put a tablespoon in a
zip-lock bag then cooled it under the tap.
When it was cool I put the stripes and eyes on the bees – success!
They’re so cute!! Then carefully iced
the cooled cupcake and popped a bee on top.
Very nice. By then the cake was
finished so time for the true patience test.
20 minutes… hmmm still quite warm… walk away FBJ… 30 minutes, nope ~sigh~ 60 minutes… COME ON
CAKE!!! 15 more minutes… yep, I think it’s done, definitely not warm
anymore. Put the cake on a cake board
($4 for 2 at the local variety store) used Nigella’s suggestion of baking paper
under the cake for icing. Carefully
iced… looking good! Carefully removed baking paper and artistically placed
bees. Hmmm too many bees, rest of the
bees clustered around the bottom – dammit – I should have bought some icing
flowers for them to hang out on.
OHMIGOD it looks awesome! I’ve finally
succeeded in creating a beautiful cake!**
Himself got home (golf this time) and made all the appropriate noises
and was very appreciative of his mini cake.
He couldn’t wait and immediately ate it and gave it the big thumbs
up. So now for my next challenge - how
to get it to work without the cake slipping off the cake board. It’s not like I could cover it with cling
wrap, the tacky icing would stick to it and that would ruin my cake!
Carefully drove to work with it on the
floor (very slow around corners) and gave the cake to a colleague to take it
upstairs while I parked. Lots of cake
cudos when I got upstairs. You made
that?? Yep ~smug~.
Dammit! No-one wants to cut the cake and
‘ruin’ it! Finally one of the guys caved
and the cake was attacked. It went down
very well (huzzah!). Apparently Sunday
night late working cake is the way to go.
 |
| Apparently Honey Cake Trumps Crusty Creams... |
Had a quick Skype with the Wee Girl while
waiting for defects “YOU MADE THE NIGELLA BEE CAKE???? I’ve always wanted to
make that cake and you would never let me!!!” “oh well, if you run away to Italy
* Wife of much awesomeness***
** High fiving myself around the kitchen
***Apparently not so awesome when I leave a
leaking water bottle on Himself’s side of the bed
2 comments:
:( I wanted cake.
Excellent FBJ! Looks fabulous. Wish I was there to enjoy it... I wouldn't have hesitated to cut it! The bees look gorgeous, too.