Suzette's Parenting and Breastfeeding Blog | My First Attempt of Baking Birthday Cake

On Friday, I was on leave. It was DH’s birthday, and it was just an excuse to take leave, really, nothing serious. Though I was on leave, DH is still working and I planned to bake a cake.

That was before I was informed that I lost my job.

After hearing that, cake baking is kind of a good way to distract me a bit too. I realized (at the end), that I really forgot the pain, especially when I was focusing in decorating it!

I’ve been baking cheese cakes in the past without problems, but never made any real birthday cakes, i.e. those with frosting. On Friday, I intended to do so, after seeing 5xMom’s ‘family cake’.

I prepared all material according to this video here.

I hate measuring material. I just don’t know how to get them right. Why the ingredients so leceh? Like 95g lour, 55g corn starch, 45g butter, 190g sugar… Look at my scale below. The smallest mark is in the gap of 25g. I can do 50, 100, 75, 125, but definitely can’t measure anything like those accurately. And I heard that ingredient measurement is the most important part of cake making, and what I do is only agak-agak! :p

Alright, never mind, I finally got all the ingredients ready and started the first step… mixing the egg york and added 2 tablespoon of sugar. After a while, the mixture doesn’t look quite right. While examining the mixer, I stained some on my shirt. Tasted it, I wonder why it was salty because I haven’t added the butter yet…

Just as I was wondering, I suddenly remembered my last failure in baking a chocolate moist cake. I MADE THE SAME MISTAKE!! I USED THE SAME SALT INSTEAD OF SUGAR AGAIN!!!

Look at this. This is a pack of corse salt. I can’t remember why I bought them. Maybe it was used to wash pork belly when I was on my first maternity confinement? It didn’t occur to me that it COULD be something other than sugar, so I didn’t pay attention. There gone, my 8 eggs.

After lunch, I tried again. This time it seems okay. Then baked for 30 min. Poked with a wooden skewer, still have batter on it. Continued another 5 min, still the same. Another 5 min then okay. But my cake became hard and black outside.

After setting it cold, I started decorating. First cut into 3 layers. I was lousy in my knife. First layer very thick. Second layer cut so unevenly, poked a big hole on the 3rd layer. And the 3rd layer was so thin. Some parts were ‘leaked’ :p

I then whipped the whipping cream, but after reading 5xmom that they over beat the first time, I was too careful not to overbeat, stopped exactly 3.5 min. Ended up the whipped cream became too watery. After applying half way, I couldn’t stand it, whipped another 1 min.

Here is my final product. I never know decorating a cake can be so stressed! But good enough to divert my thinking a lot. Right after I put down the pipping bag. I started thinking about my job again!

Did you notice the blue cream, there is a part different from the rest? I started with those first, did 3 then realized they look really like ’shit’ — seriously! I laughed out loud at myself, couldn’t stop it. To cover the ’shit’, I just put another line joining that 3 ’shit’. :p

I chilled it until 9:30pm, and we blew the cake in MIL’s house. I didn’t put much hope in the cake, but still find myself very embarassed when…

IAN SAID IT LOUDLY: “YULK! NOT NICE!”

Okay, my magic charm on Ian is gone. My greatest supporter, Ian, abandoned my ship. Sob, sob, sob!

DH wallopped one piece but said that the whipped cream too watery, and tasted too sweet. He also said that the cake very hard.

Aiyoh, I really don’t know what went wrong. I know the folding part is tough – I could never get it right! And some more, why 30 min still not cook? Should try again next time – just for me to eat alone, so no one will laugh at me. Hahaha!

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