Baking a birthday cake

The introduction

So, this other day I was planning to go to my aunt’s and grandmother’s and visit them and stuff like that. Well, I’ve told you in my other blogs, that my aunt bakes great cakes and that she is a great cook, too. She’s just amazing and what’s more interesting is that she is not a cook or something by profession, I mean, she just does that stuff and knows that stuff by herself and she just loves when she bakes and cooks and things like that. She has taught me many things about cooking and stuff and , I guess, I learn some new things every time I visit her. So, this day we planned that I could learn how to bake a cake, I mean, the real cake, just like those birthday ones and on parties and stuff like that. And by that, I usually mean the round cakes and not rectangular, because cake for me has a round shape in general. Well, I always admired her cakes and I do admire them now, too, of course and everyone who has tasted my aunt’s cakes is just amazed by them and say that they haven’t tasted any cake as delicious as hers. And I always wanted to know how to prepare this cream filling which my aunt did for those cakes, because I don’t really get to taste something like that anywhere. And, if you want to know the truth, I have tasted many cakes and stuff like that in many places.

The beginning of the day

Well, I was looking forward to this day so that I would learn how to bake a real cake and, at the same time, I would have this opportunity of eating that delicious cake once more. The thing was, what type of cake we would bake. Usually I just love everything that has cocoa powder in it and so if the cake was with cocoa and chocolate, that would be just fine by me. However, now it’s time when many fruits are available and I don’t really love fruit cakes which are sold in grocery stores or in bakeries, but I knew that a fruit cake by my aunt would be just as delicious as the cocoa one, so it was not a problem for me to bake a fruit cake, too. Then my sister told us that she would come to my aunt’s, too, and she just loves cakes very much and everyone knows that, so we let her decide what type of cake it would be. Well, she wanted a strawberry cake or a raspberry cake or a cherry cake or something, but the thing was that those fruits were not really available now. Now it was time for peaches and plums and nectarines and stuff like that and bananas and we could do something like that. However she didn’t want peaches or bananas in a cake and so we couldn’t decide anything about the cake. Then once she said something about a cocoa cake and how it would be great and I was just like “how many times I have told you about that”?! and it turned out that she hadn’t heard me saying those things about cocoa cake and that we could prepare that one, so that was it, we decided to prepare a chocolate cake and everything was clear then.

So, the day came and we were waiting for my aunt to come and take us to hers. It was something about 11 a.m. when she came and we went. We bought some things on our way and that was it, we were there to my aunt’s and we saw my grandmother and cousin and had some talk and stuff like that. They were really looking forward to seeing us as they hadn’t seen us for some time now. Well, when we got there it was still morning or something like that and everyone was kind of hungry and we had these “Dedas Puri” bought, which means “Mother’s Bread” and they call that shoti _ white bread that is baked in Tone and stuff like that and it’s really delicious _ and it was all new and hot and it was just impossible not to eat it. And people just love it with butter and cheese and so we ate them with butter and cheese and we also had some pork pieces bought and we made a pork shishkabob, which turned out really delicious, too. Everyone just loves pork shishkabob or Mtsvadi here, so we have it really often, if you want to know the truth.

So, after all these stuff, it was time to start baking. The moment came!

First of all, we needed some equipment, such as large bowls and mixers and some ingredients, of course. And the baking pan or saucepan or whatever it is called. We chose a medium one, because it was not supposed to be for many people, as we were only four and it shouldn’t have been something that would need many things and much time and things like that, you know. I guess, it was a 30 cm diameter pan or something about that. My aunt said, that it was maximum of 10 eggs size saucepan. They use eggs as a measuring scale of cakes as I know. So, the first thing we needed to do was to measure the saucepan size on a baking sheet and cut that sheet of that size. Then we put that baking sheet into the saucepan and spread some oil on it and around the walls of the saucepan.

Preparation process

Then, we took 10 eggs for the cake. Those eggs needed to be separated, so that egg yolks would be in one bowl and those egg whites would be in another one.

Then, we needed 10 tbs sugar and 10 tbs highest quality flour in different bowls. And those tbs shouldn’t have been too much. We added some  baking powder to the flour, too.

First of all, we needed to whisk egg yolks so that it would become fluffy and kind of stiff and I started whisking it with  a mixer. It needed some time to get all whisked and stuff, but some time later it was pretty good and it was time to add that sugar little by little. After that, we added some flour just like that and then we added those eggs one at a time and we kept one egg yolk for the cream filling. Well, the biscuit dough was done and it just needed to be poured into the saucepan. Then we put that saucepan into the oven and turned the gas on a really low heat. Now we could just sit there and wait until the biscuit was done, so that we could take it out and decorate it and all the other things. I guess, it needed two hours or something like that to be baked. Besides, it was on a really low heat, so it baked slowly, however it didn’t get burned or something like that and it was just perfect when my aunt took it out of the oven.

If you want to know the truth, you should really take good care of the biscuit, because it’s the main thing for the structure and if it’s not good, then the whole cake is not good, of course. So, my aunt took it out of the saucepan really carefully, though it needed some effort to be taken out. And it was really a perfect biscuit, if you ask me. Then it needed to be got rid of that baking sheet and that was it, we could just set it aside and let it cool.

Until the cake biscuit got cool, we could prepare the cream for the filling. For that we needed 1 litre milk, 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of flour, 1 or 2 packs of vanilla.

First of all, the milk needed to be boiled. When the milk boiled we just took some of it out and poured it onto the sugar and flour mixture and whisked it really well and put that left egg yolk in it, too and mixed them  well, and then poured that mixture into the saucepan with some vanilla and let it cook on a lower heat for some time, for about 15 minutes or so, I guess, occasionally stirring, until it was like a porridge and hard to stir. When it was ready, we turned the gas off and set the saucepan aside to let it get cold and it needed to stir occasionally, so that it would get cold easily and not to get all stiff and stuff like that, I guess.

We prepared some syrup, too, for the biscuit, so that we could pour that syrup on it and it would get softer and would have a better taste. The syrup was one Jacob’s cup of sugar and one cup of water and we had some instant coffee in another cup. Then it all needed to be cooled and mixed together with two tsp of vodka.

Then it was time to prepare some cream filling for the inside of the cake, I mean, not the décor cream, but the filling cream. So we took 100 grams of unsweetened butter spread and whisked it well, and then added some cream little by little and added some cocoa powder to it, too , until the taste was just what we wanted and added some vodka, too.

Now, when the biscuit was all cooled and stuff like that, we took it and put it on a table. It was time to cut the biscuit into two halves. For that we used a knife to kind of put signs around the cake and then we took a floss and just  cut the biscuit into two halves. After that we poured some coffee syrup onto the first half, so that it would get moisture and stuff like that and at the same time, they would have this coffee taste. Then I spread some filling cream onto one half, then we put another half on top of it and then I spread some filling cream around them, too, and then poured the remaining coffee syrup onto the second half, too, and then spread some filling cream on it , too. Then we put the cake into the fridge, into the freezer, to be exact and we prepared the décor cream. My sister decided that the décor cream on the top should be green. And I decided the edges to be brown. And then she said that we should have a whipping cream of different colours and make some flowers with them. So, we made that cream, too. We had those different forms, that could make some flowers and things of different shapes and I did some basket-shapes on the edges and it was pretty good for the first time doer. Then we did some grass-shapes on the topof the cake and my sister did them , too. Well, they weren’t very bad, if you ask me. We did have some fun, though . So then, my aunt made that whipping cream and we had it in red and yellow and we put some large and small flowers on the cake and as a whole it became really beautiful and lovely. It was really cute and we knew that it would be really delicious, as we had already tasted the cream and I knew that the biscuit would be really good, too, because it was so perfect when we took it out of the oven.

It was kind of late already when we finished decorating the cake and we knew that it needed some time to become all tasty and stuff, so we decided to put the cake into the fridge and leave it there for the night and it would be just perfect when we cut it the next day. Though the next day my aunt wouldn’t be at home and wouldn’t be at that moment when we cut the cake, but the other day she would come back and we would leave some piece of it for her, too, of course.

Cutting the cake

Well, the next day came and we were looking forward to cutting the cake and tasting it. We had our breakfast and stuff like that, of course, and then my sister announced that we should have cut the cake somewhere around the late afternoon and stuff and, well, okay, I agreed to that, and so we were waiting for that late afternoon when I would be time to cut the cake. And also, she wanted to have a candle to light on the cake and she and my cousin  would blow that candle.

It was something like 5 o’clock when we gathered in the kitchen and took the cake out of the fridge and then we searched for the candles and took one of them and put it on the cake and lit it. And then everyone just blew the candle and that was it and then we cut the cake. My sister cut the middle part in a round shape, we call it the “heart” of the cake and then I cut the slices and put them on the plates for each of us. It turned out that the slices were pretty large and they didn’t want any additions of the cake that time, so that we put it in the fridge again. The cake was really delicious. It was soft, light, had this amazing cocoa tasteand, at the same time, it was really beautiful and lovely.

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