One of my friends came over for supper last night, and, since it's her birthday today (happy birthday, Grace!) I decided to bake her a birthday cake. The only flaw in this plan was when I realised, five minutes before serving said cake, that we didn't have any matches in the flat to light the candles with! Cue a candle-less cake with an uninterrupted pattern.
I love to decorate the cakes I make but I often don't due to the amount of time and space it requires to do a proper job (halls of residence especially hindered my cake inspirations last year). However, I now have a lovely kitchen in my new flat with an orange KitchenAid mixer sitting in pride of place on the work surface; a fact that makes me keen to get out my toolbox and start decorating again.
My choice of cake for the occasion was a red velvet cake with cream cheese "frosting" (made from the Hummingbird Bakery recipe). Unusual ingredient of the day? White wine vinegar. Fortunately you don't taste that particular ingredient in the finished cake, it just helps the bicarbonate of soda to do its magic. To top the cake I used a curly stencil and filled it in with my new Callebaut cocoa powder (it smells so good!), which worked surprisingly well as only one bit of powder fell where it wasn't supposed to.
Grace was suitably impressed by the pretty pattern and white icing. Most importantly it tasted pretty good too!
