Of birthday cakes (and calorie bombs!)

Last week, we celebrated a birthday for one of the guys in the office. I was given the task of buying his 28th birthday cake. And so, I went hunting around for the perfect birthday cake. The pop-up fondant cakes were at the top of my list. Aesthetically pleasing as they are, they weren't pleasing at all to my budget. Next on the list was a cut-out shape cake. But these were rather ordinary (except for the cut-out shapes) and were covered in lots of fattening cream. Most if not all of us in the office are watching our burgeoning waistlines and should I buy the cake, it will go to waste. My next option was fancy cupcakes in different flavours adorned like a Christmas tree with colourful butter icing and sprinkled with variations of hundreds and thousands. They too, were beyond my budget. Call it sheer coincidence or plain luck, there just happened to be a fine looking bakery bustling with people across from where I stood pondering, deep in thought. I popped in to take a look at their ware and instantly found what I was looking for. Sitting in a brightly lit refrigerated display counter was a pink square cake with a somewhat unusual dotty appearance. It looked fantastic and fitted well within my budget. Taking a gamble since I had never patronised this bakery before, I made the purchase and crossed my fingers that the cake would taste every bit as good as it pleased the eye.

I am glad to say that after the birthday song was sung, a birthday wish made and the candle blown out, the cake did not disappoint at all. It was a vanilla sponge cake with a top layer of raspberry mousse decorated with dollops of the pink mousse neatly arranged on top. Somewhere along the middle of the cake was a layer of cold, cream custard that fused the two halves of cake together. And finally towards the bottom was another layer of the same raspberry mousse again. It is a pleasantly light cake without all that heavy cream that most traditional cakes have. I am not a cake person and usually cringe at the thought of having to eat a slice of birthday cake almost every month, but I gleefully downed two slices during morning tea, plus a third later in the afternoon. Each spoonful of cake was pleasantly delightful down until the last bite!