A birthday cake for Brad. Baked by me.I'm not sure what it is with me and baking? Or why it ends up with cake on the balcony, bum cookies and digging through garbage, but here it is:
Brad went into Vancouver on the weekend so I got up early on Sunday to make him a cake.
No biggie.
I got the cake recipe from Looneyspoons. Always a good bet - easy, reliable recipes. The cake part went off without a hitch. There wasn't icing with this cake recipe so I had to source an icing recipe somewhere else....
......from Anna Olsen's 'Another Cup of Sugar'. I started the icing....1/3 cups of butter....3 cups icing sugar.....um, sorry?
Holy dry ingredients?! There was icing sugar flying all over the kitchen and I didn't even have all of it added yet, not to mention the cocoa.
I had 45 minutes until I had to leave to get Brad at the ferry.
It was at this point that the cake ended up on the balcony (it wasn't cooling fast enough, I don't know why I didn't just put it in the fridge) and the panicked phone calls began.
My mom knew exactly what to do: ramble off my Grandma's icing recipe: icing sugar, cocoa, butter and hot water. I was skeptical (why? given my track record with baking - I have no right to be) but desperate, so I started throwing stuff in a new bowl.
No measuring required of course.
I don't know why I would doubt my own beloved Grandma - the icing totally came together. Too sweet - just add more cocoa, too thick - add more hot water. Genius.
5 comments:
Glad to hear about your cakelicious success!
Anna Olson is married to my uncle's brother. I have never managed to meet her at family weddings or events where ours and my uncle's mix. I suspect she's aware that I will pester her about the perfect custard should she show up. :-)
That's a never-fail icing recipe, for sure, I use the same-ish recipe but sometimes splash in some Kahlua instead of the water. Zing! Classy icing in mere minutes. :)
PS: Happy belated birthday to Brad! I hope you guys had a wonderful day together (at least after work). That cake sure looks yummy...
Yaey glad it all worked out in the end! Looks delicious. I love that you put the cake outside to cool versus in the fridge haha.
Awesome! Glad that it all worked out!
I had Wowie Maui Chicken from Looneyspoons last night for dinner!
Love it! it looks like it was delish! I love that you used the little silver balls- my Mom totally used to use those when decorating our cakes when we were kids!
Also, my Mom's secret to the icing sugar recipe was adding a tiny touch of lemon juice to take the edge off the sweetness factor...
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