A few months ago a friend of mine went for a job interview (which she eventually got, and then moved millions of miles away for!) and while on this interview she met people who held many roles in her future department. One was the Dean of Science. What a cool job title, I would love to be the Dean of Science. She also interviewed with someone who was the Cake Chair. Hello, Cake Chair?! I didn't know this could be a title, but it's certainly one I want!!
Recently I've been part of a small group of students in my department who have started a new organization, the Psychology Graduate Student Association, whose main goal is to get the large department to mingle and mix in a more social manner than we do now. This is a group that is desperately needed in our department, and something I'm very excited to be a part of. Of course, the first thing I suggested was a monthly birthday parties - I love birthdays, I love parties, I love baking cakes! I figured what else would get everyone out of their offices and chatting with each other, cake. So we decided that the last Friday of every month would be the monthly birthday party for that month. And we started as soon as we could, with June! And, in my mind if no where else, this makes me the Cake Chair!
For the first Monthly Birthday party I wanted to go with a simple (flavor-wise) cake, so that no one was disappointed. I choose Martha's Butter yellow cake, which was delicious (and my new favorite yellow cake recipe). I chose the Dark Chocolate Buttercream from the same book, but I was slightly disappointed. It was really a lot more solid than I expected. I made it the night before, and put it in the fridge, and it was a solid tub of chocolate in the morning. I had to microwave it slightly to even get it spreadable for putting on the cake. And once one the cake, it solidified pretty quickly too. It tasted great, but it was just - not what I expected.
Because they were June birthdays, I decided to decorate it with some piped chocolate butterflies. Which, in reality should have been piped days ahead of time, but I mostly forgot we were starting this and I piped them at 9pm the night before. But the first batch of butterflies were not up to par, so I ran to the store for more chocolate, and piped a replacement batch at midnight.
I used Mel's recipe for decorator's icing, and normally I fight with this so much. But, something happened right this time (maybe I finally got the HEAPING of the shortening measurement right), it was a PERFECT consistency. I also went back to a manual bag and tip for the decorating. I wanted to write on the cake, but cake writing is one of my biggest fears. I think it came out ok. I ran out of room a little, if I had my way it would read Happy JUNE Birthdays. But, I won't be picky.
Sadly, the butterflies didn't make it. The 5 minute walk from my car to school in the morning had them melty and droopy. They looked like sad hurt butterflies to me, but everyone else seemed to think they were "cute" - maybe because they hadn't seen them when they were beautiful!
Happy June Birthdays to all of our BIFL readers.
3 comments:
I was wondering why you were making a June birthday cake when your birthday was in July. I did not know that you were the official Cake Chair!
I'm certainly unofficially the cake chair, it's a title I've given myself. But what else do you call someone who makes cakes for the department, I mean, really?!
Jenni! Those butterflies are beautiful! And oh my gosh, your writing!!!! It's never looked better!!! Nice work. Oh, and I know, that damn decorator's frosting recipe. It gets me every time too and I usually just end up buying it from AC Moore. . I know, go ahead, call me a cheater 'cause I am!
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