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On Birthdays and Cake
Date: Oct. 28th 2009
Category: Cakes, Cheesecakes, Cupcakes and Muffins
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I believe birthday cake is most important.
I would go so far as to say that choosing a birthday cake is one of the most important decisions you can make. For me, the choice of a birthday cake is the establishment of a theme, a mood, a rhythm for your birthday.
I start auditioning cakes well in advance of my birthday. Sometimes I don’t go for cakes at all. Sometimes I bake the cake myself. Many times Mamma Cream Puff bakes it for me.
This year, I wanted something spicy and yet familiar. What I got was a warm cake filled with love. I got a cake that was part Canada and part Italy (thanks to the chestnut flour). It was a simple, beautiful, deeply touching cake. It’s exactly what I wanted.
When someone asks me to bake a cake for their birthday, I take this request very seriously because just as I want to set the tone for my birthday, I want to make sure that I bake the right cake for the right person.
Think what you want.
But I firmly believe that there’s a right moment in time very every cake. Or cookie. Or pie. And you should bake what’s right when it’s right.
Last week, I was asked by a coworker if I would bake a cake to the celebrate the 50th birthday of another coworker.
Of course I would!
And then I promptly went home and spent an entire evening looking at cakes. I covered the couch from end to end with baking books. I had stacks of cake books on the floor and I even brought one or two to bed with me.
Some cakes seemed sort of right. Some were completely wrong. But I knew that the right cake would reveal itself and it did: Tiramisu’ Cake from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes
The woman celebrating her special day is someone I’ve gotten to know fairly well over the past few years. She told me once about how she grew up baking and cooking and how much she wished she had the time to pursue those activities as much as she did when she was younger. She also told me about how as a student, she’d spent time in Italy, which she looks back upon so fondly.
Knowing how much she loved her time in Italy and what an impression it left on her, when I saw the recipe for this cake, it just popped right out at me and said, “I’m it. Bake me.”
So I made three layers of genoise and I bathed them in espresso-rum syrup. I made a zabaglione cream that I had to literally force myself not to eat. I soaked cake layers, piled on cream, stacked other layers and piled on more cream. Then I showered it all in ground chocolate and built a beautiful crown of chocolate curls.
And because every cake you bake is an opportunity, I took this opportunity to learn how to wrap a cake in ribbon.
It was a lovely cake not just because it tasted good (sorry, no pics of the sliced cake) but mostly because it was right.
If there is a religion of baking, then I like to think that a birthday cake is like a blessing of sorts.
It’s a wish.
Make it count.
Ciao!
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10/28/09 at 10:40 pm
I think birthday cake is just as important as a wedding cake in making sure it sets the mood and tastes fabulous!
10/28/09 at 10:46 pm
I try to do something different each year for my dad, whose birthday is Christmas Eve. Sometimes he gives me a request, and sometimes I pick something. This year, I’m trying to convince him that he really really wants to have a Toblerone cheesecake for his birthday, because I just happened to come across a recipe for it in a magazine, AND Toblerones are his absolute favourite chocolate bar. He’s just not 100% on the cheesecake part yet. If not, I am inspired to do SOMETHING cool with Toblerones for his birthday!
Great blog post, Ivonne. I love baking and cooking by instinct!
10/29/09 at 4:46 am
You are right! That cake is fabulous!
Cheers,
Rosa
10/29/09 at 9:17 am
What a beautiful cake! I love it when recipes speak to you - then they’re always the right one!
10/29/09 at 12:11 pm
I must say I found this to be quite interesting. You see, I am not a cake person. Or maybe I should say I am not an “American” cake person. I detest cloyingly sweet frosting.. Now, give me “European” style cakes and its a different story. Aside from 18 monthes we lived in Germany (Bavaria to be exact) from the time I was 5 until just before my 13th birthday. These were my formative years! Give me slightly sweet, mildly spicy cakes!! Cakes made with real butter, real chocolate and real cream!! I am going to have to take a look at this cake a little more closely… Hmm do I foresee a baking session in the near future? Quite possibly, that is after the bread is baked, bags are sewn, and fresh pasta is made..
10/29/09 at 2:14 pm
That cake looks amazing, and filled with love and all things good. Perfect I would say. Now……….. did I miss your birthday? Evil of me———– hbd dear Ivonne!!!
10/29/09 at 2:51 pm
Oh, wow! What an awesome-looking cake.
Paz
10/29/09 at 7:15 pm
the cake is beautiful!! well done, you definitely made the right one!
10/30/09 at 4:45 am
It looks beautiful and delicious! But I can’t help thinking how much you must have put into this masterpiece. Sometimes I’m frustrated because I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to bake cakes as beautiful as the ones you do, or even half as delish or lovely.
10/30/09 at 3:49 pm
It certainly looks like a masterpiece Ivonne! I am so impressed! It looks like it has just been baked by one of the fanciest patisseries! I am sure your colleague was very happy with all the work you put into it. And…. I always go to bed with a cooking book.. That’s not weird is it? lol
10/30/09 at 7:29 pm
Stunning and I so believe the same thing about birthday cakes. Life’s little pleasure that can mean so much.
11/1/09 at 1:45 am
Couldn’t agree more with you, I am a fan of birthday cake as long as I remember. Yours look absolutely breathtaking. Delicious and pretty tempting.
11/5/09 at 5:37 pm
What a beautiful cake!
11/26/09 at 5:16 pm
Just looking for a way to post something since I couldn’t find any other contact info on short notice. Just wanted to thank you SOOOO much for your George Brown Baking Arts blogging in the past. I stumbled across your blog a few days ago while I was trying to figure out what taking that program at GBC might be like. I now have a much better idea, thanks to you. I really appreciate it! Happy baking!