Cake for me, Cake for you

Our strawberry yoghurt castle cake (spot the miget strawberries!)

Jo's family party lemon buttercake

As with most 21st's you generally have a party. and what's a party without cake? Being a joint birthday, i had more motivation in trying to make the cake look decent. As per usual many problems were encountered. i didn't even start off on the right track; using 250g butter instead of 150g - oh my eyes - i didn't realise until i had poured the batter into the angel cake tin (hole in middle) SO then i was told by my all-knowing mother to add 1/2cup extra flour. now who wants to make a mess and pour everything out? so i stirred it in the tin. with a knife. going round and round and round. so tiresome. i think i might have over cooked it a tad. thus relatively dense cake. that icing was intended to be pink. looked quite peach to me. and the chocolate didnt quite work out. it was too soft so on the night it fell apart. sigh. it tasted ok though. nice and strawberry. i admit, although i had intended to, i didnt make the top swiss roll tower(s). thanks last minute bargains.

unfortunately i was so full from dinner that i could eat too much. this was at Wagamama's in Parra. good food. good company. THANK YOU MY MOST LOVELY FRIENDS! had gyoza and yaki udon. so full. the gyoza were a mushy than i thought they would be. i've never had it before, maybe that is normal. same with the udon, slight mushiness. but for the noodles i liked it that way. Beware diving gyozas! sure they might stick to ur chopsticks initially, but when ur not looking, *plop* into the soy sauce it goes. and if at a great height there can be major splashage. eg. all over my PINK dress. not happy, gyoza.

The second cake was also a bit of a pain. the butter didnt mix too well in the batter but worked itself out. the actual cake bit was about 2.5cm high. meaning more fatty cream filling. (piped on with my brank spanking new piping bag. woo!) i had considered making another layer after work AT 1230AM, but no. instead i made white choc ganache. the only bit that i'm very happy with. woke at 7am to begin decorating so it'd be set in time. again the chocolate shapes were soft. i didnt taste it. hope it was ok.