Wednesday 24 November 2021

Thinking Laterally.


My son, Kimbo, is not known for 'cake making', but armed with his Mary Berry cake-making bible, he threw himself into the mixing bowl and created this masterpiece, below, for his son's birthday.


Unfortunately he only had enough materials for one layer, so it needed to be cut in half in order to make the traditional cream and jam filled two-layer cake he had set his heart upon.

Initially I'd thought that they'd already eaten half of it; but no, that's the finished job.

Apparently this did not affect it's wonderful flavour, and it was given 10/10. Well done!
 

45 comments:

  1. Brilliant but surely it ought to be marked 5/5.

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    1. It was only half as good as a whole cake would have been, so maybe 5/5 is right.

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  2. An excellent job. It looks like a Victoria Sponge cake. I wonder if Sainsburys might take up the idea of half a cake.
    I often wonder if Mary Berry was brought in to replace the Queen of tv Chefs, Delia Smith. I miss her terribly. She refused to dumb down and so walked away. It's probably the reason we are still a Nation of 'Ready Meals' shoppers.

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    1. I recently saw Delia being interviewed on TV about her Football club. She looked miserable; maybe she should return to cookery where she always seemed in her element and happy.

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    2. Delia loves her football club and is very much in her element, win or lose. She is not unhappy.

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    3. She looked pretty grim on TV the other day; I don't know if they'd won or lost. Maybe she'd just burned a cake!

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    4. They have obviously had problems, managed sacked, foot of table, but Delia is football through and through. Of course she is not going to be laughing all over her face at such times. She is a tough lady.

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  3. Well done Kimbo..good baking and good thinking!

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    1. It looks very good; light and airy. I didn't get to taste it, but I believe it was 'perfect'.

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  4. What a good idea, and a great dad for thinking of it.

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  5. Good job Kimbo ….. who says it has to be conventional …. As long as it tastes good ?!!!! I like cooking by I’m no baker …. Probably because I love savoury things and am not much of a lover of cake ….. I could never be on The Great British Bake Off !!!! XXXX

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    1. I'm the same; if it contains salt, I cook it. If it contains sugar I leave it to Lady Magnon.

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    2. Even ALL of the sweet baked goods require a pinch of salt, Cro. It enhances the flavor!!

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  6. The cake has inexperienced straight man baker stamped all over it, but I can tell it would be very yummy. I'm sure the lad loved his birthday cake.

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    1. Your description of him is perfect, but he did a good job.

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  7. Have to laugh at that cake. But as most note, he used his brains and made a delcious cake. Its the eating part that counts

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  8. A thing of rare beauty! Hopefully, it will inspire you to have a go at baking your own cake. Lady Magnon will be most impressed. Don't forget to wash your hands and wear your floral pinafore. Happy baking!

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    1. I did once make an Olive and Bacon Cake which was wonderful. Not your average cake, but very good for folk like me who don't eat sugar.

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  9. He used a lot of the most important ingredient: Love

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  10. mortiquarian.com tells you about the grave of yesterday. Not that there was much to tell. The Brighton mortiquarian. But you might find the website of interest.

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    1. Thanks for that, Sherlock. You've now added 'super sleuth' to your long list of talents.

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    2. Right, thanks to you I've found them. It's the tomb of Laurentia Dorothea Robertson, and her husband Francis, and it describes the naked figure as 'A bound Man'. Thank you.

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    3. Thank you. I thought the Weiss grave was interesting where he had a sword that would automatically drop down of him to ensure he was dead in the coffin. He was a surgical instrument maker by trade.

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    4. Sounds more worthy of Edgar Allen Poe!

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  11. And to think that once upon a time I stayed up all night to mould some obnoxious pieces of sponge cake, sticky something filling, not to mention icing and other decorations into a TRAIN. One locomotive, three carriages.

    What thickens one's hide as a cook (indeed, baker) that what takes forever to concoct will be DEMOLISHED in no relation to the time it took you to concoct.

    Hats off to Kimbo. Lateral thinking, as I was fed with my father's milk, is where it's at. Other than that the cake reminds me of one of my favourite pieces of furniture. A round table, only half of it.

    Happy Birthday to the six year old,
    U

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    1. I think he was 13, but only six candles in the house!!!

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  12. The cake looks delicious...I have one of those cookbooks as well, but I haven't pulled it out in awhile. Now I'm hungry, haha

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    1. My wife uses Mary Berry's 'cake bible' all the time; she would never consult anything else.

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  13. One has to admire his initiative, a finished cake looking half eaten...does look tasty.

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    1. It's certainly inventive. It could be a 'FIRST'.

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    2. A 'Bake off' winner perchance?

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  14. As any cook and/or baker knows ... one must be ready to improvise when and where necessary! Your boy did a great job of that!

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  15. Well it looks good anyway but the proof of the pudding and all that.

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  16. What a clever man your son is, with his half cake! I love it. Happy birthday to the newly minted teenager!

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    1. Half cakes could become a trend; student specials.

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  17. Good idea, Kimbo! I like to see what's inside the cake before committing :)

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    1. The filling was there for all to see. Another good selling point.

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  18. Happy B-day to your grandson. 13 calls for a major celebration. The cake looks delicious. Cutting the cake vertically in half and stacking it is a brilliant idea. I once tried to slice a single layer horizontally in two and it cracked and crumbled. Hence, I buy cakes instead.

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    1. I'm not a cake maker myself, but I think horizontal cutting is standard practice, but one would have to be very cautious.

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  19. I love cake and that one looks just right :)

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