The Once and Future Cake

I stumbled out of bed at 11:30, bleary-eyed and pajama-clad. Only three hours to go before the party, and the cake was still in pieces in the freezer, and the chocolate buttercream was still unmade.

Gone were my dreams of creating a whimsical YouTube show, complete with costumes and props and instructions on how to carve a cake. The camera wasn't charged, the tripod was still in storage, and I hadn't taken a shower yet.

I think you know what they say about "best laid plans," but is there a saying about thrown-together-then-scrapped-at-the-last-minute plans? My friends and I are still talking about making an instructional and fun webshow about cake decorating, but that will just have to be put off until another day.

On the other hand, the cake itself is really awesome. I'm getting a lot better at carving cakes, thanks to instructions from Shelley at Bliss. I've really gained a lot of confidence in my cake decorating abilities since I started working there.

I'm still far from perfect, though. For example, the sword. It was gumpaste, and I made it the night before, so it didn't have time to dry. I did have the foresight to stick a dowel rod through it, but I didn't put the dowel rod all the way through, so the next day, the top of the sword was sorta cracking. Uh-oh. I patched it up with some cardboard and somehow, miraculously (it was Excalibur after all!) it stayed upright on the cake during the entire party. Oh, and that shiny stuff? Silver Glaze.

Maggie really loved the cake though, even if I did forget the anvil that the Magical Sword was "supposedly" attached to. The chocolate pound cake was "the best chocolate cake I have ever eaten," according to my aunt. So even though I look at my cakes with a more critical eye than someone else, I'm really proud of this cake and I'm glad everyone else liked it!