Friday 22 April 2016

Nothing beats (recycled) cake!

As a complete term of endearment I refer to one of my sisters as an absolute nutter. 
Last June I created a two tier cake for my nieces naming day.
Exhibit A. Original cake June 2015

 With an entire tier untouched (blame me for the enormous cake), instead of cutting it up and sharing it out to all and sundry- she froze the tier and has kept it- waiting for another special  occasion to utilise it. 
Just to picture this "left over" tier size- it was 10" round and approx 9" high. AKA- bloody huge!

It was my mums birthday this week. When discussing what the plans to celebrate were- nutter sister pipes up and says that she's going to prepare the birthday cake utilising the frozen tier she'd been saving. 
Honestly- you'd think she'd have a connection to hook her up with a fresh cake. 
There was no arguing the use of the second hand cake. She reminded me on number of occasions that my own clients successfully froze their top tiers, and enjoyed them as an anniversary/celebration cake within 12 months of their weddings, what's good for the goose is good for the gander right?
So that was that. The tier was to be reinvigorated as the birthday cake for the family birthday dinner. 

It was my mums actual birthday yesterday. I surprised her at work with a (freshly made) Drip cake.


Chocolate peanut butter caramel to be exact. 
Layers of rich chocolate with peanut butter ganache, all drizzled with rich velvety caramel. With the added bonus of dark chocolate mousse quenelles (and a giant one on top). 
Suffice to say both mum and her colleagues enjoyed the birthday day cake!

But tonight's family festivities had us celebrating with the recycled cake. I'm pretty much eating my hat right about now because to my astonishment- the cake was actually perfect. Just like the day it was made. 
Keeping a giant cake is not like freezing a top tier. There was no size Tupperware container available to encase the cake. It had been thoroughly glad wrapped for the last 10 months- sat in a deep freezer- and defrosted yesterday. Amazing. 
I honestly expected it to have been tainted by other freezer items given it wasn't encased in an airtight container. But indeed it was fab. 

I'd forgotten what flavour it was. Passionfruit lime, with lime buttercream. Moist delicious, and not an ounce of drying out!
I'm delighted to report that this time is the last time this tier (in any form) will be making an appearance- I've sectioned it and sent it off with 11 different people. It's being eaten this weekend. 
My husband in his humor suggested my sister could keep wedges and re-ice them as skateboard ramps for an 8th birthday. Thanks Steve, like she needs encouragement or ideas lol. 

So there it was. A cake, used (successfully) twice for vastly different occasions, and enjoyed. The moral of this story is, know that a thrifty sister won't let great cake go to waste- even when she has unlimited supply of it at her disposal. 

What began as a tiny Facebook status update - has turned into me sharing one of the idiosyncrasies that make my sister (and my family) the awesome people they are. 

Thanks for reading
SJ 

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