My 2017 In Cakes

What better way to sum up my 2017 than to give a snap shot of my year in cakes!
After all most times, cake is synonymous to good times, I have to be honest the cakes I’ll talk about today are not even half of the amount of cake I consumed! This is because I live life… so I don’t always remember to snap a picture… well that and my phone camera stopped working eons ago! But in 2018, since I like the idea of summing up my year in cakes, I will make a deliberate effort to keep a visual cake diary to be shared inshallah in January 2019!

Since I never posted recipes for some of these cakes, I’d love to hear which ones you’d like me to post. Enjoy!

Don’t ever save anything for a special occasion, being alive is the special occasion! Go on eat that cake… Imagine what the ladies who shooed away the desert cart on the titanic would Say!

The first cake I have for you was a strawberry sponge cake that I made just because…hey every day should be a celebration!

The recipe for this ⇓⇓ ⇓⇓ sponge, is the same as the one I had shared here for the cake I’ have next ⇓⇓ ⇓⇓

This one we baked in February 2017 because my little zizwhizz wanted to celebrate her birthday which technically is in August but like I said every day is a celebration!

I had the classic banana bread reincarnate in  soooooooooo many variations in 2017… there was the cinnamon banana bread, the peanut butter banana bread, the caramel banana bread, the chocolate chip banana bread, the chocolate banana bread, the triple chocolate banana bread, the pecan banana bread, the walnut banana bread, the almond butter banana bread, the cashew nut banana bread…I could keep going!!!!! but you get the idea!!! all these were variations of my good old banana bread.

If you Really think about it does any one really know the difference between banana bread and banana cake?????????? Banana Bread is a crowd favourite in my home. Below are all the banging reasons why I love it :
i. It’s easy to bang out, and impossible to get it wrong.
ii. Its easy to get a ‘thank you bang’ for banging it out.
iii. I don’t know how true the phrase once you go black you never go back is; I do know that once you bake this banana bread or any of the other 101 variations I have made, you will go bananas and you’ll keep going back to it!
iv. You get bang for your buck… those sad bananas that you were thinking had to be tossed get a new lease n life!

I mean anything that starts with salted caramel needs no further elaboration… so I won’t bother telling you how this Salted Caramel Upside Down Pineapple Cake will turn your world topsy turvy making you fall head over heels unable to tell up from down!

I baked this Pink & Purple sponge Cake with young berry jam and buttercream frosting cake for Zizwhizes birthday … you see I love to bake but sometimes I just can’t be bothered… that was until I shopped around those price tags! lawdy! … then I became real bothered – bothered enough to decide I’d do it myself and use one of her dolls as the centre pieces. Needless to say I was up all night… no really I was! But it was worth it… the cake was humongous, and my client was satisfied I had met all the specs i.e barbie cake purple and pink cake layers … gold pearls and multicoloured sprinkles… granted I could have carved the puffy dress better but hey! The look on her face was priceless when I brought it to her school!

Oh! I might have forgotten to mention, this wasn’t for her actual birthday either, it’s just that her school year ends in June, and since her birthday is when school is out for the long summer break. She wanted her friends to celebrate with her… sema pressure za shopping for goodie bags for friend to take home!!

 

Now, my sincere apologies for the not so clear photo of the booziest cake of the bunch!! … maybe thats why despite making two of my beshtie shmeshties scroll through their picture libraries, this was the clearest one we came up with!! I made this one for my sweet potato aka shweet poraro aka  ‘jangu partners‘ bridal shower and what a labour of love it was!! … there was baileys in the batter and Bailey doused on the cake and baileys in the butter cream, which was spread between all four layers of the cake and on the cake as well…. I legit used an entire 750ml of baileys on this baby!

I DIY’d the banners using bamboo skewers and some glitter glue may not be legible but it says from miss to Mrs.. The top of the cake has an gold edible pearls bodice, and wedding dress ruffles, piped on; The sides of the cake I hand painted with Wiltons edible Gold Paint, and on the base I piped more ruffles sprinkled with the gold pearls.

The shower was AWESOME!!! Her theme was black and gold… of which the bomb ass bridal team DIY’d 90% of it! Led by one Miss Kowi!! Sigh! Memories!

Other cakes with awesome memories attached include Zizmaroos Kindergarten Graduation Cake ⇓⇓ ⇓⇓ both of which I did not make but were awesome!

and my surprise birthday cake which instead of cutting into, I made all my friends grab spoons and we all simultaneously dug into it!!⇓⇓ ⇓⇓ Again sorry for the grainy photo’s didn’t know I’d be sharing when these were taken!!

That ladies and gentlemen, that was my year in cakes… like I said I don’t want any judgement the next time you see me in a restaurant eating a salad… I have already admitted this is only a half… FINE a sixteenth of my 2017 in cakes!!! I hope you enjoyed it!!