Put through my paces

Last weekend was the end of a cake extravaganza in my world. The only way to describe it is prolific, in my short time doing this cake bizzo. If I think about it, pretty much from the end of December when I made that wee cake with the two people sitting on top and started planning this blog, right up until last weekend I have been living in a world of cake. Hmmm... a world of cake, a world made out of cake? Sorry, my mind wanders... back to it. Its not to say that I'm not still in a cake world... ideas for cakes that are up and coming are still running through my head, plans and preparations are in the back of my mind. BUT, the key difference is that for the next two months there are no cake orders on the books. I have to say, I feel like it is well deserved and even needed.... working full time and making a few cakes every month certainly seems to encroach on other parts of life.

My eyes seem to all of a sudden be a little wider open. I now notice that my vegetable garden has become a desolate wasteland, the refridgerator is filled with odd things and when was the last time I had a weekend with no plans and no cake-related.... stuff? So, I'm back to the real world baby.... sniffing the air, remembering what its like and kind of looking forward to what the next few weeks might bring.... who knows, it could be another cake.

But back to what we're all really here for.... to look at cakes. I had two that I made last weekend.

Gosh, I've all of a sudden realised that every time I've presented a cake I never talk about what flavour the cake is inside... I have been remiss. This is turning into an odd post, my mind it taking some interesting roads and in the interest of blogging I try and not filter my stream of thought too much.... but at least some, or else they would never make much sense.

Again, back to the cakes. The first was my very first cake for a little one.... turning one year old in fact. I had to keep reminding myself who my target audience was and make something colourful and fun. This is also the first time I did some hand painting for a cake..... and tried out some stencil work.... so a whole lot of new. The cake was chocolate zucchini, which I think has become my all time favourite chocolate cake. Check it out:

The second cake is one of my personal favourites, I'm not sure why, maybe I like simplicity. I was really happy with how it came out as well..... and its very satisfying to cover your stainless bench in chocolate and then peel it off in giant curls and waves. This is an orange cake, which I'm told was tasty and light, again, I was happy with the flavour choice, something a little different. One of these days I'm going to post shots of a cake that has been cut into. Anyhow... here it is:

So there you have it. Stay tuned... same bat time, same bat channel.... despite the lack of cake, there will still be posts!

Whats trivial?

Here I am.... I'm sorry I'm late! This post could be a bit of a mish-mash of things. I have a bit to say, a cake to show you and other things to discuss. Its been two weeks since I've seen you all, I have been caught up in life outside of blogging, which I'm sure will happen from time to time.

With the recent damaging events in our own backyard and Japan just a couple of days ago (another place very dear to my heart) it makes me think how immaterial and frivolous a cake is. There has been so much written about these events and truely, I am not a skilled enough writer or have any words decent enough to pay tribute to what has happened. So what do I do? Relate it to cakes of course. I'm not even sure I'm going to use the right words with this.

Like most New Zealanders and others around the world I have been watching a lot of news lately and trying to dream up ways that I could somehow make myself useful. What magical powers could I develop to help make things better? But then I shake my head out of my daze and remind myself that I have work to do, or errands to run, or laundry to hang out. Somehow, on some levels, life just continues for the rest of us. For me that also includes making cakes. And this is when it struck me that a cake is a true luxury in life, something in the big scheme of things that is inconsequential. Blogging about making them, equally as so. When others are suffering it makes these trivial things nearly seem silly, or like we could be spending our time in better ways. But I have a cake due for someone, its a person's birthday, my customer's mother's birthday in fact. That is something important.

Therefore I then wonder whether trivial things do have their place? They have their own level of importance. A cake is good and special and something positive... it is a distraction from the real world and has its own little realm of magic to it. For people directly impacted by a tradgedy or those of us trying to continue without being constantly thinking about it all (which doesn't help anyone), maybe these types of things come in handy. A little comfort, a distraction, an interruption in the constant distress of it all. Who knows.... just a thought.

This brings me to wondering how I could help with cake? I have been thinking on it for the last couple of weeks. Donating baking just isn't enough. Can I auction a cake? I wouldn't even know how to go about it. I will keep thinking.

I did mention that life has been keeping me busy, on top of watching a lot of news. I won't bore you with the mundane, but there has been much baby showering going on. Infact it has just been a weekend of it with a bunch of lovely girls. I decided to do all the food for the weekend, which for those that know me, is on my list of favourite things to do. Any cooking is wonderful... I'm certain I over fed everyone, but it meant I got to cook what I wanted. Lasagna (with homemade pasta), lemon tart, fancy sandwiches, cupcakes, sushi and even fried chicken. It did go completely out of my head to think of taking photos... apologies there.

Just before all this showering of babies I did find time to make the cake I previously mentioned. It was a lovely one to make, something different, but a combination of things I was comfortable doing. Although I will admit that I had a slight issue when it came to choosing the colour of the fondant decoration... red, purple, yellow, green (light or dark)... all of those had their merits. My hands were a very odd colour by the end of it.

Here is the result, you can decide for yourselves whether you think I chose the right colour:

Oh and one more thing before I go..... I have made it my mission to learn to make my own cheese and bread (with my own starter), its still in the early stages but this could be the start of some fill in blog posts when there aren't too many cakes around. See you... sooner next time, I promise.