Let there be cake

So another cake experiment. Not too shabby this time. I put a twist on Jonathan's childhood birthday cake made by his mother Janet every year. I turned it into a chocolate cake for my dad's 60th birthday cake. It was a chocolate cake mix with orange juice and zest, top with meringue and berries covered with chocolate whipped cream. I decorated the cake with Linden Chocolate thins, mixed berries and for the cake topper, I cut out big 60 with butter cookie and royal icing and added edible gold for glamor. The cake was so tall after all the decorations, I was pretty nervous holding on to it on the ride to the restaurant. It was only a 9inch cake but it was enough for 30+ people. I did had fun making the cake topper, butter cookie was a lot harder than I thought, the royal icing was a bitch to be clean, definitely need practice. The humidity and heat here make it hard to dry. Need to remember to work on it sooner next time. The taste of the cake was well received. I reduced the sugar in the recipe and also substitute with Equal for some of the sugar. Since it is a health conscious crowd, I want to make sure it is on the light side. That is also one of the difficulty in HK, people like light fluffy cakes, not the intense flavor that I am used to in the US. Lots of my favorite recipes had to be adjusted to HK taste. Sometimes it works, but sometimes it is just wrong. Always trial and error.

Then I also made some edible picture frames for name cards. It was so well received, I put some of my dad's best pics on it and made it look like a picture frame. When people found out it was edible, they were so excited about it. They most likely will not get eaten but it was the wow factor for the evening. I would definitely use it again for weddings or other events. I know Chinese thinks that its not such a good idea to have pics on a cake and be cut or eaten, but we don't have to put pictures, we can put logos, symbols, even fun clip arts. With some imagination, old tricks can be chic and different.