It was my birthday at the weekend – no, no need to send best wishes, especially as the big 4-0 approaches rapidly, and it has already been long forgotten. My partner – Telsa text me to ask if my hemispherical cake pans were available for loansies. I thought that I was going to be getting the Star Wars Death Star cake, which I had been dropping hints about for months.
I didn’t get my hopes up though, as by Friday I had had two texts. One to say that the first attempt had been aborted, and another to say Telsa was off to get some more supplies. Third time lucky maybe? I wasn’t quite sure why it was proving so difficult, as I had already informed Telsa that you could by grey coloured ready roll icing at the shop at the end of the road and how hard could two sponge cakes be?
I was instructed not to come in the kitchen on Saturday, as final preparations were being made. I sneaked a look in the fridge on Saturday, but the creation shrouded in a plastic carrier bag for camouflage purposes didn’t really seem to be big enough for a Death Star. I presumed it was still to be assembled.
You can imagine my surprise when on Sunday morning I came downstairs to find a Charlotte Royale awaiting me. Kippertastic (my dog) had been shut out of the kitchen for fear of his tongue accidentally falling against the cream in a horrific cake-based incident.
In my excitement about the Death Star, I had forgotten that I had also been going on about wanting a Charlotte Royale ever since it appeared on Bake Off. And Saint Mary of Berries would have been proud of this effort. Made from scratch, it was more perfect than any of the creations produced by the Bake Off contestants. Tight Swiss rolls, home-made strawberry conserve glaze and a lovely tart mousse at the centre. Telsa had been struggling a little to get the mousse to set, I believe, and so had put it in the freezer. It had set round the edges, so it got mixed in a bit. It gave it a kind of terrazzo style that I actually quite liked. It didn’t change the texture, but definitely added to the visual appeal of the mousse.
Well done Telsa, you can make that again!
stuee1975 