21st wedding anniversary cake!

It's that time of year again and this time I decided to make a super-duper cake. Not that we never get to eat cake or anything. I've been reading Gesine's blog for a long time now. I love the cakes and other goodies she makes. You can tell that so much love goes into them.

It took me a while to decide which cake I was going to be inspired by, well, if you've seen her blog you'll know why; so much deliciousness. I say inspired because I decided to follow the concept more than the actual recipe. Also, if I just say inspired then I can only blame myself if my brilliant ideas for change were not that brilliant. Which turned out to be the case.

Have a look at Gesine's.

I used my own recipes for the different elements. A simple fat-free sponge for the base and top and the chocolate spiral. I used ganache, cream and buttercream, like Gesine does in her recipe. My cake turned out a lot smaller, 6 inches, but that's fine. Just about right for the four of us to have a slice each.


I also cheated a little with the hearts on the side. I used my chocolate mold for those and finally I got Alex to write “Love” on top. I can't write neatly with a pencil never mind frosting!


When we cut the cake it was immediately obvious that 1) I should have put a thicker layer of cream on the rolled up cake, to get a more defined look; after all, the sensational thing about the cake was the upright ‘layers’ and 2) the sponge recipe I used was so spongy, it was difficult to get a clean cut. So, really, if you want it to turn out like Gesine's... follow her recipe!


We had some funny moments where the words ‘cake’ and ‘wrecks’ were mentioned, especially when HE was writing “Love” on the top and then, after I cut it, it didn't have the sharp effect I'd hoped for. Anyway, it was delicious and there's still half a bowl of ganache to eat later on!

Happy anniversary to us!


Liz Cupcakes

Winner and the OTHER anniversary cake

Thanks for all the entries into the give-away. It was enlightening. It seems like coffee was the run away winner of that one! Maybe it has to do with the slight bitterness of coffee together with the sweetness of cake.

By the way, I drink water with cake and Alex likes black coffee, no sugar!

So we had lots of comments on both sides again but the winner of the heart shaped baking tin is...no. 14!



Congratulations Kiki! The tin will be in the post on Monday morning.

On Tuesday I made another cake.


It's a recipe I've been meaning to try for a while and since it had enormous quantities of chocolate, butter and cream, it needed a special occasion!




Thanks again to everyone who entered. There will be another give-away coming up soon. Don't forget to answer the question in your comments in order to be entered into the give-away :)

Liz

We survived the party!

The kids had a wonderful time.  Even though we had to have it completely inside the apartment with the air conditioning blasting! It was rather hot this past week-end in Athens!

We had games with prizes like bubbles and those blower thingys! The kids seem to love those most of all! We did a treasure hunt, too, the prize being lots of chocolate and sweeties (for added hyperactivity).

The whole thing was fairly simple, so I didn't get too tired. For the food I made a shallow pasticchio which I cut into child-sized portions, some small tuna sandwiches, cucumber sticks and, to supplement it, we got a couple of large pizzas for the older kids and adults. I make a nice pizza but this time it was just too much to think about! For the sweet I made some simple vanilla cupcakes with pink frosting and this Kit Kat and m&m ice-cream cake!

Inside it was a basic 2 layer chocolate cake which I filled with homemade chocolate ice cream and then decorated with the Kit Kats and m&ms. It looked very impressive and exciting to the kids and tasted wonderful, although I have to admit, it was total chocolate overkill! You definitely have to cut small portions with this one! The Kit Kats made it easy to divide the portions though.

We started around 6 and by 10 all the little munchkins had gone and half an hour later my two were showered and in bed! They really sleep soundly after an exhausting afternoon like that! I do, too!!!

Now, it's back to the packing. The countdown has really begun now!

Busy busy busy

Things are moving along at a fast pace over here.

We've arranged a date with the removal men and are leaving Athens on the 8th of August! Our hopes and plans are coming to fruition.

I have mixed feelings, of course. On the one hand I am very excited about the move and on the other a bit sad to be leaving close friends here. Having said that, I am certain that quite a few of them will be regular visitors to our new home.

These last few days I have been packing boxes. My back is already feeling the strain. Of course, once the boxes are packed it brings another problem! Where to put the boxes? Things that were on shelves and in cupboards are now in boxes and we haven't got the floor space to store them!

This weekend we are having a small leaving party for the kids and a few of their friends. It seemed like a good idea at the time. The time being when we explained to FZ we would be leaving Athens. I thought that it would keep his mind off the part about leaving his friends and the house he has grown up in so far! Now I am thinking "What was I thinking?"

So this morning I am off to Jumbo sans kids. (I've explained my aversion to taking kids shopping before, and it applies even more so to shopping at a toy store!) I'll get little prizes for the party games and balloons etc. Then I will supplement what I get with various unsuitable sweets and chocolate items! They'll be hyperactive for weeks!

For the rest of the food I will have things like homemade pizza and hotdogs for them and a layer cake (I think I first saw the idea on tastespotting ) and some cupcakes for dessert. I am tempted to fill the cake with ice-cream instead of buttercream, but I am not sure how the decorations I intend to add will be if they get frozen. All will be revealed next week!

So now what remains is to make enough space on the floor so there is space for games, and decorate in such a way as to mask the fact that the walls are totally bare and not exactly brilliant white! Oh, and clean the house.

Liz