may's birthday cake

may's birthday cake

This is much more a story about my baking failures than a birthday present. Even though I eventually got the result I was looking for, it came at a cost and took forever to complete. I had in mind an idea of a layered sponge cake with a thin tart strip and a fun cream topping. Multiple trips to bulk barn and many many thanks to superfriend Catherine who gave me tips, lent me baking pans and turning trays and most of all the recipe for an amazing vanilla sponge cake base. Oh also, she is responsible for the buttercream which I cannot take credit for, but I did the colouring myself!

I really didn't want to bake anything, but seeing how impressed May was when I made a dessert for a dinner party, I wanted to make something she would never believe was made by me. Okay so here's my first lesson - do not attempt to bake or cook anything in the middle of the night, no good can come from someone inexperienced. Lesson Number 2: Do not use anything but pyrex when using a double boiler to make lemon curd. Yes, cleaning up glass shards exploding on the stove top was not fun. Oh it gets worse...

Lesson number 3: A recipe that calls for 7 eggs yolks + 14 egg whites, is not the same as 7 whole eggs + 7 egg whites. I thought to myself "why would Catherine list it out like that? it so much easier to do it this way" - and then i read the next line, "whisk yolks separately, whisk egg whites separately"...... FAIL! By then, i had both egg whites and egg yolks in the same bowl, a complete disaster and waste. So at 1am in the morning, what was I to do with all these cracked open eggs? My mom says "scramble it!" So I made a Ginormousaurus plate of shrimp, green onion scrambled eggs and went to bed. haha.


it was over, before it begun

the next day, i started all over again with a new batch of eggs


mixing yolks, merigue mixture, baking layers, lemon curd in a proper double boiler


rasberry jam (store bought) and lemon curd (homemade) layers. Amazing lemon curd recipe courtesy of Catherine She also had a lot of extra butter cream, which I coloured a light minty green and the edible silver balls are from bulk barn


and.. voila! it looked pretty good, more or less what i was going for


From here on, I think i'll leave the baking to the pros, perhaps I was just too ambitous, but I just don't think baking is not for me, it requires too much precision and care. Nobody died and seeing that smile on May's face made it all worth it! The best part was she didn't believe I made it! Thank's so much Celine for capturing this moment above, you nailed it perfectly. I wish I had a proper photo of the inside layer, but this is a shot taken from may's phone!