Category Archives: Layer cakes

Lemon cakes and well wishes

Posted in Baking Recipes, From the books, Layer cakes, Lemon Obsession by

It was an incredibly dreary day when I made this, and yet I could not allow it to permeate the purpose of this cake. The summer weather has been odd, abruptly throwing rain in the middle of heat waves whenever it felt like it, like a child throwing a tantrum, or maybe a person splashing water into the face of another in the heat of an argument. Either way, the clouds had caused the sun to cast a dark gray sheen over everything, but thankfully not on our moods.

Jason was holding my camera as I messily assembled his birthday cake.

‘Hurry up, will you!’ He told me as he snapped some process photos. ‘I’ve got tons of things to do!’

‘Shut up and concentrate on taking good pictures!’ I called back.

He checked the LCD of my camera. ‘Oh please. I think you’ll be pleased with all the photos I took,’ he responded, a smug smile crossing his face. In truth he took several blurry photos, but I was in too good a mood to care an awful lot. Anyway, it wouldn’t be right of me to rain on his parade while I’m making a cake to celebrate his high school graduation.

‘Hmph, being narcissistic again, are we?’ I chided him playfully.

It’s been this way between us lately, and anybody who knows what my relationship with this particular brother of mine is like would comment that we’ve come a long way. People make jokes about cats and dogs fighting but those jokes got nothing on us when we fought as children. I remember distinctly a lot of name-calling, body-dragging, and sabotaging of personal belongings, but all of it feels like another lifetime ago.

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A tall cake for the tall birthday boy

Posted in At home, Baking Recipes, Layer cakes by

I have three younger brothers:

  • the first one is a year younger than I (more on him later)
  • the middle one has the same birthday as I do, only six years later (I think this is why we can get along the best when things are on the up and up– because we share the same kind of interests and for the most part have similar qualities. On the flipside, we also have the worst kind of fights.)
  • the youngest one is my sweetie pie, because he is the sweetest little boy I know

I’d be lying if I said we all got along perfectly fine, but I’d also be lying if I did not admit that a big reason why I love my life is because of these three doofuses. I’ve talked about my middle brother before because we inevitably make joint decisions on birthday cakes given that we share the same birthday, but today let us focus on brother number 1.

It was his birthday last Saturday, and of course I made him a cake. After singing him his birthday song, I let him cut the cake and he went, ‘Whoa! This is a tall cake!’

So I told him, as if I did it on purpose, ‘Well, your cake is supposed to be as tall as you!’
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Belated First Blogiversary Purple Ombré Cake

Posted in Baking Recipes, Experiments & experiences, Layer cakes by

What is the punishment for forgetting your blogiversary, I wonder. Do you get banned from tasting your future creations, or get cursed with really bad food photographs? I certainly hope not! Well, I started my blog on the 5th of February last year (World Nutella Day too apparently), but all this time, I thought it was actually the 25th of February! How in the world did I come up with this 20-day gap date? Must be all that sleep I’m losing that is messing with my head. In any case, I went ahead and made my little blog a cake to celebrate. You know what they say, better late than never!

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A cake to match a relationship of epic proportions

Posted in At home, Baking Recipes, Cheesecakes, Layer cakes by

My brother, J- and I have a love-hate relationship that reaches to the extremes of the Universe. So epic is it in fact, that during the times we absolutely hate each other, I would go so far as to give him the silent treatment for weeks at a time and completely ignore his existence. And it’s not only me who doesn’t get along with him, my other siblings often have it out with him as well, but not as… awe-inspiring as my fights with him can get sometimes. When we were younger it was much, much worse. My parents used to joke that we were like cat and dog, though in truth, cats and dogs don’t hold a candle to us. In fact they can even co-exist peacefully with each other, which if you lived in my house you would know is nearly impossible with the two of us. Well most of the time, anyway. And to make it ironic, he and I share the same birthdate. Looks like the joke’s on me after all!

J- was born on the eve of my 6th birthday. He was adorable as a baby, but already showed many signs of the traits he would later on develop as a teenager. I admit, despite him being not the perfect brother, I wasn’t exactly the perfect sister either. I should have been a bit more patient with him, more understanding of the fact that he is but a child. But I guess I was a bigger child than he at some point, the way I would take revenge on him whenever he did something that made me angry. My childhood memories connected to him aren’t stellar and bright; they were filled with petty fights, extremely creative [in a bad way] name-calling, and a little bit of violent shrieking. Looking back, it’s not one of my best moments as a sister. I am actually very close to my siblings; J- however, isn’t quite as affectionate as my other two brothers. Even when he was but a toddler, he would prefer doing things on his own rather than have people “baby” him. It’s a sort of stubborn independence, but one that has made him into a person who prefers to keep his distance rather than be outgoing.

Now that we’re older, I’d like to think J- and I have developed a better kind of relationship. He would come to me when he needs someone to talk to about high school issues, and I would gladly offer him some advice. Sure, we still have our bad times, but we have a bit more good times now, which I’m truly glad for. That’s why when it came time for me to choose the cake I was to bake for our birthday (which was yesterday), this was the first cake that popped into my mind.

I just think this cake perfectly represents the relationship we have: the glaring red velvet layer describes how heated our fights can get, and the whiteness of the cheesecake represents the lighter, brighter moments we have together. And how accurate is it that there are two layers of the crimson cake sandwiching the cheesecake! As if the cake is signifying how often we collide (about 75% of the time, just so you know) compared to the peaceful moments we spend with each other. But the fact that it is all covered with the whiteness of cream cheese frosting to me means that, at the end of the day, we embrace each other for who we are, as family should. This is quite literally the most perfect cake I could make for him. (Bonus: cheesecake is his favourite dessert!)

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{Dearly Dreaming Dorie} A Black and White birthday cake for Papa

Posted in At home, Baking Recipes, Dearly Dreaming Dorie, From the books, Layer cakes by

I am very close to my Father. I guess being the eldest and only girl in the family does that. I don’t tend to say it out loud, but I like going out of my way to do things for him, big or small. That’s why despite having zero experience and practice in making real layer cakes, I stubbornly pushed through with this one. I wanted to make him a birthday cake. A few open cookbooks later, I decided on one of the most elegant-looking cakes in Dorie Greenspan’s wonderful cookbook. It’s become such a habit for me to pick a Dorie Greenspan recipe whenever I’m baking something for the first time. I have had much success using her recipes; but I turn to her mostly because I like the way she gives instructions. Dorie is like the baker aunt I never had. She always manages to give me a nudge in the right direction somehow. Is that odd?

However, attempting this recipe was more emotionally taxing than anything else. Most idle moments leading up to making this cake felt like a film strip of all things that could go wrong playing over and over in my head. I kept wanting to make everything perfect and beautiful and so I ended up subconsciously pressuring myself. I guess I just wanted to do this small thing for my Father to show him how much I appreciate all that he has done and given me, or us. Somehow I doubt presenting any number of recognitions or medals would be enough to show my appreciation for all the love and guidance my parents, my Dad especially, has given me (and besides, those go more for my own advantage anyway). But I’ll keep trying. Making a cake for his birthday is the least I could do, but the only time I’ll be happy is if it is an excellent cake. And although mine doesn’t look as perfect as Dorie’s [for now], it is a cake I will definitely make again once I become good at this whole layer cake thing.

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