I agreed to make a cake for my aunt and one for my best friend's engagement party. I was forward planning as usual and baked my cakes in advance, freezing them in preparation for decorating, but then I realised I hadn't baked enough to so I had to make more. This meant late nights or melting afternoons in the kitchen. Then I had to deal with the nightmare of attempting to ice and cover cakes on hot and humid days.
Oh my days, seriously! I need air con. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. My icing wouldn't stick to the cake, or it was just too melty. The fondant was sticking and falling apart everywhere. When I attempted to give one cake a dusting of lustre it just clumped and stuck to the fondant. I dyed fondant which was supposed to be a nice duck egg blue but ended up looking like blu tac, then I ran out of it and tried to dye more but try as I might I could not get the same shade.
I genuinely thought I was going to cry at one point. I followed my best friend's advice and opened a bottle of wine. After two glasses it didn't seem like so much of a disaster.
The first cake is okay I think, the engagement party cake is.... well, it's a bit wonky, I had to improvise when I couldn't dye the fondant the right colour, I have to pray no one notices the disaster that s the lustre covered tier. I shall be relying on poor lighting and lots of alcohol to cover for me at the party tomorrow night. I have basically ignored my children for the past two days (thankfully the husband has been off on holiday from work).
So here they are. They are an abject lesson in baking in a heatwave, over-stretching yourself and trying too many new techniques at once.
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