Friday 24 May 2024

Mums cakes are best.


The cake of our early years remains the cake by which all others are judged.

If my mother decided to make a cake, we insisted it was a Chocolate Cake. It always seemed as if then, just a few minutes later, there it was ready to eat. She was a magician who could produce such things out of a hat, with no fuss or mess; and it was always perfect.


But then came the best bit; the icing. I made it my job to decorate the top. Mother would 'plaster' the top with the Chocolate icing, and my job was to decorate.

It was always the same. With the back of a fork I would draw wavy lines across the icing in as perfect a pattern as possible. I possibly expended more concentration on those wavy lines than on anything else.

I haven't decorated a cake for decades, but if I did it would be exactly the same. As you can no doubt see, the one above was not decorated by me; no wavy lines!

 

26 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. It did with my mother, I never knew a bad cake!

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  2. I could eat that cake right now and I haven't even had breakfast yet!

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  3. Mum wasn't a baker. She once microwaved a frozen Sara Lee chocolate cake. It was the best chocolate trifle I've ever had.

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    1. Mother was a WI member, so cake baking was obligatory. She made a very good Victoria Sponge too!

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  4. Can there be too much topping?

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    1. For me there can, as I'm a non-sugar eater. But that doesn't stop me from having a bit.

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  5. My mother was a good baker. The tins were always full. I love icing, so soft and sweet. However icing is not a 'thing' here. The family does not like it at all. I miss icing but maybe it's a good thing. All that sugar is no longer good for us, say the experts today

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    1. I don't eat sugar. However, my wife does so there's always something sweet in the house to tempt me.

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  6. Looking back, I can't remember my mother ever making a cake other than a delicious very rich fruit cake each Christmas, iced in a similar manner to your chocolate cake.

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    1. I think my mother made our Christmas Cakes, but I can't really remember. It was her more simple cakes that come to mind.

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  7. My mother was not much of a baker or a cook. Any cakes we were fortunate enough to have came from a shop.

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    1. Sounds like that might have been safer. Cake-making is a science, and the rules have to be followed 'exactly'.

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  8. If you make it to July 22nd once again and Lady M again asks you what you want for your birthday - why not say a scrummy chocolate cake that you will decorate yourself?

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    1. What a good idea, although usually I suggest a visit to a good restaurant.

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    2. Memories .... my mum, aunt and grandmother were so good at baking cakes ... pasty as well. My grandmothers pièce de résistance was a fruit cake decorated with toasted almonds all over the top. I didn't really take after them as I'm not a lover of sweet things /cakes. I much prefer savoury dishes! We have so many lovely things that can be bought now whereas, in the old days, they had to make their own so most people baked then didn't they ? XXXX

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    3. Cro, visit the good restaurant first and then have the chocolate cake for dessert at home! You can have both!

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  9. Never mind the pattern - just get the knife out and cut me a slice please.

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    1. It does look very good; almost as good as my mother's.

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  10. Chocolate cake is the absolute best. Your wavy line cake decorating sounds wonderful. How did you decorate the sides of the cake? I've never baked a cake but I know where to buy a great cake with buttercream frosting.

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    1. I don't think the side had icing; just the top. Also my mother's cakes were much flatter than the one in the photo.

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  11. I am thinking we should all bring a dish to share to your "garden" near the pool and enjoy and share food and conversation until after dark. I have no experience in drinking but would love some tutoring.

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    1. This all sounds very familiar, in fact we shall be doing this very soon.

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  12. Ahh, childhood cakes.... My mother was a good plain cook, but could turn out some really special cakes - she won prizes at our local flower show for her Victoria Sponge, but her piece de resistance was her chocolate Devil's Food cake, amazingly rich dark chocolate, moist and very very moreish.

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    1. It sounds as if your mother and mine lived very similar lives.

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