26 September 2017

Cake

Last Thursday afternoon and Friday morning I was banned from our kitchen. Lady Pudding and The Beloved Daughter were busy making cakes.

They had three to make - a chocolate one, a carrot cake and a lemon cake. Ultimately, the plan was that the completed cakes would be stacked on top of each other to form a wedding cake. Apparently, these days, couples can eschew the traditional iced wedding cake with its rich fruitcake interior and opt instead for something more "natural" - in other words a "naked cake".

Because of the fresh nature of a naked cake, it needs to produced very close to the wedding day. The wedding in prospect was held in Edale, west of Sheffield on Saturday. The bride who was embarking on the marital voyage was Ella - one of Frances's best friends.

Like many bright young English "professionals" from the north, Ella and her bridegroom now live down in London. However, they wanted a rustic, countrified wedding in the shelter of the beautiful Edale valley surrounded by friends and family.

I drove the cake makers over there on Friday afternoon, taking care to drive slowly round every corner we encountered. The three parts of the composite cake were in the boot of the car and we didn't want centrifugal forces to slide them around. And hurrah! We got the cake to Edale successfully.

On Saturday morning, Frances erected and decorated the cake which you can see at the top of this post. The mother and daughter team are below. The clever things...

35 comments:

  1. You made me laugh, Yorkie. Your post brought back a memory long-hidden. It's a memory from early 1974.

    I was to be the attendant at a girlfriend's wedding the following day...the reception was being held, on the Saturday, under a marquee, on the 2 acre grounds of her sister and brother-in-law's property in an outer suburb of Brisbane.

    On the Friday, the eve of the big event, we were almost cleaned up by another car as we were en route, delivering the wedding cake to the venue. Fortunately, we saved the cake, but we each almost had a heart attack in doing so! We proved the brakes on the car worked!

    The wedding and reception both went off without a hitch the following day!! :)

    Congratulations to your two girls...they did a fine job, and I'm sure their good efforts were greatly appreciated! And I'm also sure the cake tasted as delicious as it looks. :)

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    1. I'm glad this post jogged your memory Lee. Hell, you have so much stuff stored in your memory, it's a wonder you can find anything! It all needs filing alphabetically in an orderly fashion.

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  2. Now I want cake... Thank you :-D

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    1. Not only do you want cake, you need it! You are Ludwigsburg's Heidi Klum. Too thin.

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  3. What a wonderful looking cake, and the trip must have been nerve wrecking!

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    1. I was as cool as a cucumber Mr B... a boiled cucumber!

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  4. That is an impressive cake! I like the idea of a "naked" cake, rather than all that rich icing.

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    1. A naked cake puts the bakers under pressure. Of course traditional wedding cakes can be baked weeks in advance of the big day.

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  5. The cake looks pretty, but I would miss the icing. When I first started reading this I wondered if your daughter was getting married...

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    1. It's her birthday today. A mere child of twenty nine!

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  6. Chocolate, carrot and lemon. Something for everybody. I still prefer the traditional fruit cake with icing. Congratulations to the two cake makers and to the cake courier. It's no mean feat, delivering the cakes without mishap.

    Alphie

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    1. I think being a cake courier is a more demanding job than baking a cake.

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  7. Anonymous1:27 pm

    Recounting from my blog post many years ago, a friend's mother made a wedding cake for a couple. She did some wild driving to avoid an accident with the cake in the boot. The car's jack was set loose and ending up on the wedding cake. The cake was patched up with cream.

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    1. As an expert cake courier myself I know that one should never store a car jack, a dog or a bush next to a wedding cake when in transit.

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  8. The problem with three flavours is that some people are going to want to try all three!
    It looks amazing and I love the way Mrs Pudding is looking up proudly!

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    1. For some reason Beloved Daughter looks much taller than Queen Pudding in that picture. Perhaps it was the shoes.

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  9. Outstanding effort !

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  10. That cake is fabulous - so unusual !
    Nice photo of your lovely ladies.

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  11. Nerve-wracking experience all around! Have you ever seen videos on YouTube of wedding cake disasters? Probably not and probably a good thing you didn't watch them prior to transporting the cake . . .

    Your wife and daughter are very talented. That cake display is beautiful.

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    1. I have not seen such You Tube videos Jenny. I prefer to watch more cultured You Tube videos about The English Civil War, The Italian Renaissance and the history of porcelain.

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  12. Good for these two to produce a fancy cake. And good on you for your professional driving.

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    1. Professional driving? More like tortoise driving!

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  13. Brilliant job. Your daughter is so like you, YP. As Keith is on a diet at present, so not allowed even a mention of cake, I shall not show him this post. ;)

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    1. She has got more of me about her visage than of Shirley. As for Keith - Let him eat cake! Surely a little slice of Mr Kipling's Bakewell tart won't harm!

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  14. Your daughter is beautiful (wow -- red is her color) and Mrs. Pudding is very chic.

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    1. That's so nice of you to say so Vivian. Thank you.

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  15. OMG! You had the most dangerous and terrifying job of the whole wedding! What would have happened to you if you had destroyed all that work by driving Clint too fast around a bend. Oh! The horrors! You would have been sent to your dungeon under the floor of Pudding Manor!

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    1. You got it Madam Thyme! It's so easy to bake cakes. Far more challenging to transport them safely. Thanks for calling by again. I hope you are good.

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  16. What an amazingly beautiful cake. I would much prefer it to the traditional fruit cake and icing...always too rich! Your ladies look beautiful too!

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    1. You say nice things Frances. Like my daughter you are a good advert for Franceses everywhere!

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  17. Well done Girls! that cake looks amazing. You must be very proud of them both YP.

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  18. A beautiful cake made by two beautiful ladies.

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