My first official cake order *winks*

 

So your gal here got her first official cake order!  *winks* Doesn't matter that it was an order from mum for her colleague, right? 

An almond flavoured white cake with a Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Yes, you know me. Always trying out totally new recipes (both cake and frosting) to up the stress factor for myself. *hehehe*

No need to adjust your screens...the photo of the cake is in soft focus so that you don't see the flaws....*hahaha* In my defence, it was my first time using a piping tip and bag. Let's just say that if the frosting was red, my work surface would look like the aftermath of a violent crime scene. Really. 

But I gotta say, "bling" is the key to covering up mistakes of all kinds, including flaws on cake. Hence the decorative "bling" on said cake.

Lest you think I was pretty "unprofessional", I did drop by the cake supply store to get a cardboard cake plate and box. :)

And of course, mum brought my signages for a cameo appearance at the birthday celebration. As you know, we've had so few birthday celebrations this year in the Yam household because of the COVID 19 situation, so the signages were feeling a little neglected.  ;)

Apparently, the cake was very yummy....

And since I  had some of the frosting leftover, I decided to make another cake the next day so that the Yams could enjoy it.

Of course, I went my usual rustic route when frosting this cake because that first one took hours - probably a combination of my amateur piping/frosting skills + the room temperature (the cake had to be chilled several times in the frosting process because it was getting too soft to handle). 

And did I mention that I had a major crisis while making my Swiss Meringue Buttercream? It was supposed to be creamy and light but mine looked like cottage cheese. I seriously wanted to cry because it was a lot of expensive French butter in the mix. Turns out that it was just too cold. I covered my mixing bowl with a hot towel to get it to room temperature, then whipped it up again for a minute or 2 and it was perfect! *Triumphant music plays in the background*

Needless to say,  "How to save your buttercream" is in my Google search history. 

The cake was really good. I adapted it from the white cake recipe from Preppy Kitchen. I switched out the All-Purpose Flour for cake flour (for a softer and lighter crumb) and reduced the sugar by 1/3 in both the cake and frosting. 

Happy weekend friends! :)