30 'THANK YOU' cupcakes

WOW what a challenge!!! And the challenge wasn’t the 30 cupcakes. That was the easy bit.. the Challenge wasn’t writing ‘Thank You’ on each cupcake. That was exhilarating and a true test to my dyslexic-ness ( if that is even a word in the dictionary ) to ensure that I did not miss-spell ‘thank you’. The challenge was the HEAT. Yes the weather, in the middle of July we are currently experiencing a heat wave (I’m not complaining, especially after weeks and weeks of torrential rain and flooding). But BUTTERCREAM icing and HEAT are not the best of friends. Yep, I learnt the hard way.

After wrestling with the buttercream icing I finally finished my ‘thank you’s’ but I had 15 more cupcakes that needed some serious piping. To say that the piping was a flop would be an understatement. And YES I thought of putting them in the fridge but there was no space. So plan B was to abort the piping and until it was cooler and the sun had set.

That seemed to work but I wished for days when it was cooler and my buttercream was perfect.

The order was delivered safely to a friend who had ordered the cupcakes for her colleagues on her last day at work as a pre-reg pharmacist. On her last day she was also due to receive the results of her last pre-reg exams. The next morning I received a message that she had PASSED. She could enjoy the cupcakes with her colleagues GUILT FREE!!!

a BAKING FRUMP !!!!!

I’m in a BAKING FRUMP !!!!

What does the word ‘frump’ even mean????? All I know is that at the present moment it best describes how I feel… I’m in a baking frump!!!!

Good ol’ google describes FRUMP as :

‘frump  (fr mp)

n.

1. A girl or woman regarded as dull, plain, or unfashionable

I am DEFINITELY none of the above but this does describe how I feel about my baking. So a baking frump would mean that I have reached the stage where my baking is dull, plain or unfashionable. Since the buzz of the launch of the blog fizzled away, I found all my baked good’s a bit of a drab. I knew I had to go out and find some inspiration. Cake books or blogs were not gonna cut it, I needed to venture out and taste what people were making. So my quest began!!!!!!

My housemate introduced me to GARAGE LOUNGE ( Albert road, Southsea, Portsmouth ). I loved the atmosphere and the quirky décor; it’s a cross between retro meets vintage. I have only been there twice but on each visit I kept finding pieces of remarkable furniture or wall hangings that I would not have noticed from the last visit. The only down side of the place is that there is limited space to move your body around. That was easily resolved because once you had ordered and were seated, you easily forget that you were packed like sardines in a room ( ok maybe not as packed as sardines but you get the picture ). I really wanted to love the cakes but they were a little bit of a letdown. I expected more from the texture. I guess the challenge of a cake shop is how to keep a cake fresh and moist whilst on display for a few days.  I tasted a  honey cake for the first time and i liked it because you actually tasted the honey. The food was good and I liked the display of what your food would look like.

Overall I would go back just for the ambiance and the décor of the room. It never gets boring. And yes I will still eat the cakes because despite the cakes not meeting my ridiculously high standards, they are still better than most places.

My Quest for Inspiration continues……..

.... AND ...

(this is not GARAGE LOUNGE !!!! just some random inspiration)

I need more of this in my life !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cake-CATASTROPHE !!!!!

Cake Catastrophe!!!!!

Yes I actually had one of these and I have to say it was not my finest moment.

This will be the first entry without a photo. The cake was that disastrous. Since the excitement of the blog I have received quite a few cake orders. This has been exciting but never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would have a cake-catastrophe (I think cake-catastrophe could pass as a tongue twister… mmmm just a thought…)

Ok back to the debacle of the cake. It was my favourite cake, BLACK FOREST GATEAU and what let me down on the 11^th hour was the cream. I whipped the cream and I thought a bit of cream cheese frosting won’t affect the texture of the cream. In my head it was a great idea. it would add a bit of tanginess to it. OH BOY was I SOOOO wrong!!!!! The mixture was too runny. I even tried adding some over whipped cream to the mixture. That did not help!!!! Then with 40minutes to layer the cake and deliver it, all HELL was breaking lose. The cream was sliding off the edge and the cherries were too dense for the cream. I tried to salvage the cake by putting it in the freezer for a few minutes. That only gave me enough time to cover the whole cake with the cream. At this point I wanted to cry, scream, and hide from this nightmare in front of me. I had ruined my friend’s graduation cake!!!!!!!

So with my housemate holding the cake and my impeccable driving skills we tried to salvage as much of the cake until we reached our destination. There were screams, squeals and lots of laughter to try and distract us from the debacle that was in front of us. The worst thing was the embarrassment of my graduate friend and her family having to see this shame of a cake. For the first time I was embarrassed and ashamed to own up to making a cake. The waiter took the cake out for everyone to see this shamble of a cake. Yes I still cringe at the thought of it. We had to sit through all the speeches as this cake stared at me in all my humiliation… My saving grace was that despite the appearance, I received reassuring comments that the cake was good and people asked for seconds. That is always a very good sign. For once I ate my own cake just to make sure that it tasted ok, despite the presentation.

Overall it was a great day despite the DRAMA