A couple of weeks ago my lovely friend Claire turned forty. I'm still reeling at that...she doesn't look a day over 62!
(I kid, I kid...I would never have pegged her as being anywhere near the big 4-0.)
As cake is always an appropriate gift, I pulled out my favourite chocolate cake recipe and set about making her a birthday cake.
Now... Claire is sporty. She's a bona fide surfer girl. She bikes up and down mountain and she runs, too. (Not all at the same time.) What on earth she's doing being friends with a fully-fledged sloth like me is beyond me, but I'm glad she is! With all her sporty loves in mind, I had loads of cake ideas leaping around in my head vying for attention, "Me, me, me!"
I settled on a surfing cake for purely selfish reasons. I've been pinning ruffled cakes to my Pinterest boards for absolutely ages and I've been dying to have a go. I also wanted to have a go at an ombre cake, and thought the different shades of blue would make quite a good ocean effect. Alas, it quickly became clearly that there was something wrong with my technique in applying ruffles, so I whipped off my embarrassingly awful efforts and went for much chunkier strips that I teased into wave-like shapes with my fingertips.
The surfboard, by comparison, was dead easy. I just cut it out freehand then smoothed the edges until it looked right. As a quick shortcut, I dried it in the oven on the lowest heat possible along with the pink gerbera I knocked up while I filled and decorated the main cake. It worked a treat!
Claire's reaction totally blew me away! I've never had someone hug me so much over a cake, nearly burst into tears, or phone their Mum and insist that they come round right now to see it! Wow. I was nearly in tears myself at that.
Hooray for surprise cakes and hooray for happy friends!
Wow! It looks brilliant Angela! :D This reminds me of a post I've had in the pipeline for well, years about a couple of the cakes I've made. Who am I kidding, I'll probably never get round to it.
ReplyDeleteJen | gingerellaj.blogspot.co.uk
Oh my goodness, best cake EVER! <3 <3
ReplyDeleteI would have cried too- such a beautiful cake and such a thoughtful gift
ReplyDeleteFabulous cake, Angela! and Happy Birthday to Claire! x
ReplyDeleteThat is one fabulous cake Angela! It does look pretty darn cool - and happy birthday to your friend! :-) xx
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