While everything on the farm seems to be happening simultaneously, life as per normal still carries on, and the sideline baking orders still come in and a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do...
Although the sideline baking has been offering me the opportunity to make a decent sideline income, I am finding it harder and harder to make the time for it because as the farm projects are starting to come together, they are becoming more demanding of my time at the same time caring for my mother is definitely taking its toll as well as many caregivers of elderly living with Alzheimer and dementia might tell you. Yet I still find myself committing to a bake every now and then, and regretting it soon after. Don't get me wrong - I actually love baking, it the pressure of limited time and even more limited sleep that seems to be the problem here. And the fact that I need to bake in an overly cluttered and undersized kitchen certainly doesn't help.
This time, the cake I somehow got myself into baking was for a child's first birthday party; themed:
My First Safari
To make this cake I decided to go with a two tier cake, using a 22cm pan for the top layer and a 32cm pan for the bottom section, I though seeing that a great deal of the decor would be add on printed images stuck to toothpicks that would later on just be placed on the cake, that the different sized layers would add a bit of dimension to the cake.
As for the cake, I used the same recipe as the one I used in this previous post
As far as the decor went, at first i was intending to use fondant for the base layer as well as for the blue strip on the top layer but sadly me and the green fondant had a few minor disagreements, and after a few tries I decided to scrap that idea and start from scratch with buttercream icing in stead.
I then decided to create a green grassy texture by adding some green food coloring to a few handfuls of coconut, once that was shaded to the desired green I padded that over the layer of buttercream icing of the bottom layer - certainly not my finest work - but hey, at this stage it was already past 11pm after an excruciating day out on the farm, and I wasn't left with too much time to finish the cake, get the last stuff ready for the next days farmers market and still get some sleep, so I figured it would have to do.
Once the basic green, blue and white was done, a few edible gold crystals were sparsely sprinkled over the top.
I then decided to add a small ostrich nest with eggs.
I did this by placing a piece of wax paper into a medium sized serving spoon, then I melted some baking chocolate and drizzled it roughly into the hollow of the spoon. Just before the chocolate set, I placed three giant white speckled eggs into the makeshift nest, and placed the spoon with its contents into the fridge to set completely.
Once set, i removed the wax paper from the spoon, and slowly peeled the chocolate nest from the paper and placed it on the cake.
Then I decided to make two chocolate baobab trees in a similar way.
for this I placed the wax paper flat out on the table and with a spoon I spread some melted chocolate onto the paper in the rough shape of a baobab tree, left it to set, peeled it off from the paper and placed that on the cake as well.
Needless to say, I ended up with minimal sleep and very green hands but at the end of the day, I managed to have the cake ready and delivered on time and the client was happy. And I managed to head off to the farmers market to sell some goodies. So all is well that ends well
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Ah the life of a farmer! I can relate. We don't have alzheimer's to contend with but we do have our aging (en bedonerde) parents to care for. I love your cake! How wonderful that it brings you an extra income @breezin! I made my little guy a lion cake this year so I know how much work goes into one of these!
The life of a farmer indeed. Someone was saying to me just the other day, that it must be nice and relaxing living on a farm, easy going... I just smiled, I think there is a huge difference between visiting a farm and running one LOL
Its a lifestyle that I wouldn't want to trade for anything, but its certainly not easy. I have held many paying jobs over the years before commuting to the farm, and none of them has ever been as challenging, mentally, emotionally and physically, neither has any of them ever been as rewarding in all those aspects either ...
Much love to you and the fam