It was The Boy's Birthday a few days ago. He has reached the ripe old age of 27 and for 20 days I get to brag about my "sugar daddy" until my birthday inevitably happens and I turn 27. We decided to have a small gathering on Sunday and have a BBQ. The weather decided it would be cold, windy and raining.
With the arrival of my Future Mother-in-Law I wanted to impress. I wanted to show her that I was more than capable of caring for her son and showing her just how much I love him. So it was going to be a meal where everything was made from scratch (except for the sausages). I relinquished my Sunday morning sleep in and was in the kitchen at 8am to bake a cake. After flipping through Mum's AWW cookbooks (circa 1980's) I settled on the Chocolate Fluffy Cake. Making the cake was a lot easier than I thought, and while it was cooking The Boy and I completed the final clean of the house (he did the bulk of it on Saturday while I was getting my hair done - did I mention how great he is?). Afterwards I put the cake onto the wire rack to cool and it was now time to get into the shower and make myself presentable.
As I began running my GHD through my hair The Boy received a phone call from his mum. They were here, he headed downstairs to get into the car with them as they had to pick up the meat from the butcher and get some gas for the bbq, so I was left to ice the cake. I wanted to have icing on the side of the cake, so I thought I would just double the ingredients. Which I did. However it didn't turn into icing, it looked more like a brownie mixture, I stirred it over the stove as directed and added dribbles of cream into it until it turned into a dark, rich smooth icing that had my mouth watering. As I began to pour the mixture onto the cake, it ran out to the edge and as more mixture was poured spilled over the side, achieving the result I wanted, however it didn't stop and continued to move down and out. It turns out that doubling the ingredients gave me far too much icing and I had icing everywhere, on the floor, on the bench and to my horror on my jeans!! The icing was beginning to cool and I had limited time to decorate the cake, so in my first ever attempt to decorate a cake in my life, I think I did well, as you can see above the "27" is a little wonky, but I am pleased with the attempt, given I was time pressured and had successfully turned the kitchen into another mess to be cleaned.
I manage to change just in time for our guests to arrive, and as they sat and ate cheese and biscuits I was in the kitchen preparing the Caesar salad and bruschetta. Aside from icing the cake, everything went smoothly. I can see now why buying packet mix for making a cake is so popular, because that cake made me wash up 3 times!! My mum pointed out to me that I can buy chocolate cake for $6 from Coles. I told her I wanted to make mine with a little bit of love. The Boy pointed out that the blue M&M's were not all facing down. I smiled and told him to try making a cake, and the FMIL advised me in the future that all I need is a knife in hot water which will allow me to decorate, I eagerly took the advice and made a mental note of it.
The BBQ was a huge success with lots of eating, conversing and even a little bit of singing. I had the opportunity to spend some time with The Boy's mum which I appreciated as she lives almost 2 hours away. The Boy said it was his best birthday yet and loved all the presents I spoiled him with (including a pair of Simpsons PJ's which he won't allow me to put the pic up of him in them). I discovered that I really do love preparing good food for others and that my cooking skills are coming along nicely. As for the cake, it was a huge success, it was rich and very very bad for your health, but everyone there wanted a piece, FMIL told me it was better than store bought and The Boy kissed me on the cheek and told me to make it again, as it was the best cake he has ever. Now that is what happens when you make a cake with a little bit of love.
With the arrival of my Future Mother-in-Law I wanted to impress. I wanted to show her that I was more than capable of caring for her son and showing her just how much I love him. So it was going to be a meal where everything was made from scratch (except for the sausages). I relinquished my Sunday morning sleep in and was in the kitchen at 8am to bake a cake. After flipping through Mum's AWW cookbooks (circa 1980's) I settled on the Chocolate Fluffy Cake. Making the cake was a lot easier than I thought, and while it was cooking The Boy and I completed the final clean of the house (he did the bulk of it on Saturday while I was getting my hair done - did I mention how great he is?). Afterwards I put the cake onto the wire rack to cool and it was now time to get into the shower and make myself presentable.
As I began running my GHD through my hair The Boy received a phone call from his mum. They were here, he headed downstairs to get into the car with them as they had to pick up the meat from the butcher and get some gas for the bbq, so I was left to ice the cake. I wanted to have icing on the side of the cake, so I thought I would just double the ingredients. Which I did. However it didn't turn into icing, it looked more like a brownie mixture, I stirred it over the stove as directed and added dribbles of cream into it until it turned into a dark, rich smooth icing that had my mouth watering. As I began to pour the mixture onto the cake, it ran out to the edge and as more mixture was poured spilled over the side, achieving the result I wanted, however it didn't stop and continued to move down and out. It turns out that doubling the ingredients gave me far too much icing and I had icing everywhere, on the floor, on the bench and to my horror on my jeans!! The icing was beginning to cool and I had limited time to decorate the cake, so in my first ever attempt to decorate a cake in my life, I think I did well, as you can see above the "27" is a little wonky, but I am pleased with the attempt, given I was time pressured and had successfully turned the kitchen into another mess to be cleaned.
I manage to change just in time for our guests to arrive, and as they sat and ate cheese and biscuits I was in the kitchen preparing the Caesar salad and bruschetta. Aside from icing the cake, everything went smoothly. I can see now why buying packet mix for making a cake is so popular, because that cake made me wash up 3 times!! My mum pointed out to me that I can buy chocolate cake for $6 from Coles. I told her I wanted to make mine with a little bit of love. The Boy pointed out that the blue M&M's were not all facing down. I smiled and told him to try making a cake, and the FMIL advised me in the future that all I need is a knife in hot water which will allow me to decorate, I eagerly took the advice and made a mental note of it.
The BBQ was a huge success with lots of eating, conversing and even a little bit of singing. I had the opportunity to spend some time with The Boy's mum which I appreciated as she lives almost 2 hours away. The Boy said it was his best birthday yet and loved all the presents I spoiled him with (including a pair of Simpsons PJ's which he won't allow me to put the pic up of him in them). I discovered that I really do love preparing good food for others and that my cooking skills are coming along nicely. As for the cake, it was a huge success, it was rich and very very bad for your health, but everyone there wanted a piece, FMIL told me it was better than store bought and The Boy kissed me on the cheek and told me to make it again, as it was the best cake he has ever. Now that is what happens when you make a cake with a little bit of love.
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