Cake in a day

Saturday, 4 April 2009

So yesterday I was driving home from work (due to unforseen circumstances it was relatively early i.e. around 3pm) when I decided to check my voice mail messages.  One of the messages was from someone 'just confirming their cake for tomorrow'.  My first thought was "crap - what cake?"  and then as the name started to ring a bell my second thought was "I hope to god it's not a 3 tier fruitcake with cascading roses and figurines" as that would have been physically impossible to do in the 24 hours or so I guessed that I had.  My 3rd thought was "thank goodness I missed that call" as it would have been slightly hard for me to hide my surprise and panic had I spoken directly to the bride. 

As luck would have it it was one  of the easier styles of cakes and whilst the top tier was fruitcake I had one on hand ready to ice (I think I actually baked it with this order in mind way back when I had a grip on things).  Anyway - as soon as I got home I checked the order, rang the bride back "yep - everything is under control" and got baking!  After an evening swim (while the mud cakes cooled) I covered all the cakes and then this morning I put it all together. And I was really careful to make it absolutely perfect so that the bride didn't have to suffer for my stupidity.  I was really happy with the result. The most amazing thing was (apart from luck being generally on my side - I happened to have a cake board, all the ingredients, ribbons and decorations) I didn't even have to stay up very late although I must admit it was quite hard to get to sleep knowing that I had to get everything done in the morning and I couldn't afford to have anything go wrong.

So what have I learnt this weekend?

1. Check orders - When I'm sure I don't have anything for ages that probably means I have 3 cakes due in 2 days

2. Always have ingredients and equipment on hand - this saved me an hour in the baking, cooling and  icing process but it was a fluke that I'd been to the supermaket the night before.

3. Never answer my mobile phone in person - it's probably only bad news, but check messages often!.

In other news I'm having surgery on my ankle at the end of the month. While it's far from certain that this surgery (to remove a rogue bone) it will fix it, it is going to be worth a try.