My gosh, after all that effort it certainly did turn out spectacularly, if I may say so myself! This after the cake "exploded" in my oven. And the state that I'm in, with a sprained ankle, meant I reeeeeeaaaaallly didn't want to start from scratch and bake another cake.
So, I left it alone, in the tin, and in the oven, to cool and set and prayed to high heaven that t wouldn't fall apart as soon as I removed the spring form tin.
Luckily for me, @aimeeludick "sprayed and cooked" the tin reeeeally well, so nothing stuck. A piece did fall off the side, but I knew no one would notice after I iced and decorated the cake π
I then put it straight into the fridge so that it could firm up a bit more before I attempted to ice it. I was really worried about it falling apart and/ or needing to do multiple layers, but when I iced it last night, instead of putting the icing n the fridge to firm up after making it, I spooned it on and it was just perfect!
I have learnt that lemon zest is incredible. Just like vanilla essence, it absolutely thrills the senses. Baking is a passion, a science and a bit of magic that should excite the recipient with texture, smell, presentation, as well as taste. The smell while I was zesting this absolutely gorgeous lemon (thank you @zakludick) was just mouth watering.
Once I had iced the cake and put it back into the fridge to set (and because its bloody hot here in Cape Town and the icing was melting FAST), we all had a go at licking bowls, beaters, spoons and anything that had icing on it. Good God it was divine!!
This morning I painstakingly painted the beautiful butterfliesπ¦ that @aimeludick had made (originally for Halloween, but she made a lot so these were the extras but ssshhhhπ€«π that is often what baking is all about! Saving left overs until you need them!). didn't actually plan to paint them as I was going to decorate the cake with Nasturtiums that were growing in my garden last weekend, but the heat wave we just experienced murdered them!!π₯΅π₯΅
I actually learnt that you could paint glitter onto the cake or onto fondant decorations by making a paste with baking alcohol, {which I did not have, so I used mango infused vodka - which also smelt divine!) by watching a youtube video that @loadreaper sent to me when he gifted me a gorgeous lacing mat which is a post on its own for another time :p
I wasn't terribly chuffed with my writing. I am so grateful that my colleague is gifting me letter stencils and other baking stuff and so is my Ex Boss who is now a very dear friend, and actually the person who gave me this incredible Carrot Cake recipe n the 1st place!!π§‘
