Daddy's 49th

The Cake

Daddy turned 49 last Sunday and i made him a chocolate cake. Phew ! Thank god it turned out good. I had to go through a whole other cake before this one. I started planning what to make him about a week in advance. Just sitting in the office and thinking. Even Yiwen helped me out by sending me a picture of the cake she did. Thanks gerl ! Then i decided on a vanilla blueberry cake since he liked blueberries. So i bought a box of vanilla cake mix (big mistake) and the blueberries, marshmallows , cream and gelatine.

I had planned to bake the cake on a Friday and frost it the following Saturday, but i got busy with tuition and ended up baking it Saturday. To my utmost horror the cake had this very artificial smell, not the buttery goodness that cakes usually emanate. This smell just made me sick to my stomach. Then i stopped and made the blueberry filling which was another disaster. I think i added too much sugar and so the filling was ruined !!! The consistency was perfect but it was too SWEET !!! Sigh i was really annoyed and frustrated, Even the cream that i whipped started to curdle.

That was it, i never wanted to bake again ( not really ) but i was seriously thinking of buying a store bought cake and just shoving everything i had done into the rubbish bin. But i really wanted to bake something for m y dad. Baking something for someone is an intimate and fulfilling endeavor. Well at least i think so.

So i turned to plan C (honestly i had no plans) i made a chocolate truffle cake with my trusted recipe that i have used many times. I made two layers individually because the batter yields too much for one tin. Then i mixed my almost curdling cream with melted chocolate to make ganache. I sandwiched the cakes with a generous amount of ganache and finished the decoration with whipped cream and silver dots. ( The store didn't have cherries )

My family enjoyed the cake and even complimented me for controlling the sugar in the cream as (i anticipated) the cake was sweet. Yay ! A wonderful and sweet finish to a disasterous beginning.