Mum's Birthday 2011

We did a big-do for mum's birthday on the 17th of Sept. It's our first time organizing such a big party for her. She was away in US and came back just a day before her birthday. I decided that I wanted to make her birthday cake and starting planning a couple of months before, but it was so stressful! I've made cakes for so many of my cell members and close friends and thought that if it's for my mum, it has to be extra special.

But the problem was, previously when I made those cakes, my mum was always around to supervise and guide me. This time I was on my own as I wanted to surprise her.

So a week before, I still had no solid plan on what cake I would make her. Then decided I'd just go ahead with one of my initial plan of making her a sponge cake filled with strawberries and cream. But.. I've never made a sponge cake before!

Mum was due to return on Friday morning, so I planned to make the sponge cake on Wednesday after work, then fill and ice the cake on Thursday and then hide the cake away in my cousins house for her to be surprised by it on Saturday at the party.

So on Wednesday evening, I started on the sponge cake. I remember mum telling me not to stir the mixture too much because you need the air for the cake. So when I put in the oil, I didn't stir it in enough and it sank to the bottom of the tin. I tried very gently to stir the mixture while still in the tin but unfortunately when the cake came out from the oven, the bottom of it was not so good. That wasn't the only issue, the cake was not high enough! The plan was to make 3 layers of cake but I only could cut 2 layers of this cake and had to throw away one of it.

So I took half day off on Thursday to make another sponge cake because the cake needed to be cooled before I could assemble them.

Then came the slicing on the cake.. I couldn't for the life of me find both the slicers that my mum owned. I looked in all the cupboards and drawers so finally resolved to slicing the cake with a huge knife. Needless to say, the layers didn't come out even but hopefully no one noticed it when they were eating the cake.

Finally when I was done with the cake, I found the slicer! Doesn't that just always happen? It was right at the back of on of the drawers that I must have opened easily 5 times to look for earlier.

I bought loads of strawberries for the filling and topping.

1st layer 

2nd layer 

All 3 layers assembled together.

Also bought mandarin oranges, grapes, peaches, kiwis for the topping.

Voila! 

Mum was so surprised when I showed her the cake on Friday morning. Was not able to keep it in my cousins house because it turned out to be too big. She kept asking me 'Are you sure you made it?' and J had to confirm that it was me who made it. She was so proud of me.

Thankfully the 12" square cake was more than enough to feed all 70 guests. Some of which were just standing around the table where I was cutting the cake to be served to the guests and helping themselves over and over.

I was truly proud of myself. Mum taught me well. All those years of helping her in the kitchen cutting butter, breaking eggs, separating eggs, whisking cream, folding in flour did not come to waste.