I realize that I first came up with this blog to document down all the baking trials ups and downs. Along the way, though, too many things that I have came up with went down unrecorded.
But really, the first quarter of 2010 did not come easy for me. Busy was an understatement. I was totally flat out. I just did not find time to do a lot of things. And it did not help that both my husband and I were traveling quite extensively too.
Therefore, it's so difficult to resist the temptation just to get a quick fix by buying a cake for my little girl for her birthday this month. I had to really persevere to come up with something for her. Although, I have to admit, during the process of coming up with the cake, I was wondering, why could not I just ordered something from a bakery.
But, it's the feeling that I could only do this for another few years, to celebrate her childhood years when she still appreciate "a cake made by my mommy!". So, if baking a cake will preserve our memories of each other, then I'll make an effort to do it.
So, that's it! A cake for our little princess' 5th birthday!
Just like anything else in my life, this cake was full of challenge. Despite marrying a civil engineer, I knew that building a castle cake was not as easy as it might look on youtube video. Especially if stacking was involved. A solid foundation must be built for the base cake to be able to support the second tier cake. My dear civil engineer husband rendered no help with building the cake. I cringed when I had to push the dowel (ehmm..it's a disposable chopstick, budget constraint) into the cake. I risked having carpal tunnel syndrome when I came up with hundreds of flowers and leaves for the decoration. I prayed so hard when I had to cover my 23 x 33 cm base cake with fondant. And, did I mention that it's my first time dealing with large scale fondant?
But, the final result was oh-so-worth-it! It may not be the best cake in the world, but I am so contented with myself when my daughter kissed me on the cheek, saying that she loved the cake. Or when my sweet-talker boy said, "It's not pretty, Ma! It's very very pretty!"
I may have seen the best of cakes! But to think that this is made by a non-pro, with budget constraint, limited fondant exposure, I think I was doing rather all right.
Another problem arose when we found out that storing was an issue! The humid weather killed the fondant. So, we actually turned on the air-con in the dining room, where we kept the cake, just to ensure that the fondant did not get wet and pliant due to the humidity.
So, there was the story of my annual masterpiece for my little girl. I was tempted to take all the pictures in the decorating process. But when I saw my fingers, all covered with fondant, I said to myself, "forget it!"
