The cake or the decoration?
"Cakes are often symbols of love and friendship. If someone actually goes to the trouble of baking a cake specially for family or friends, the recipient can't fail to feel spoiled and cared-for. It's true too, that now all the so-called luxuries of life are receding from our grasp, we are returning to some of the more simple pleasures - like a family kitchen filled with the warm and welcoming aroma of home baking. Now, there's a pleasure no shop-bought cake, however expensive, can match!" Delia Smith
I'm not actually planning on talking about how to make cakes or even really what Delia is saying in the very true quote above. I was really inspired to talk about cake making and the craze for it that seems to exist today, by the current Aldi catalogue - which features a whole host of equipment - some of which was quite surprising to me - for making cakes at home. Not cupcakes, which are a whole other subject for another time, but cakes. Now I am not a great cake maker. I don't make them very often in fact, and I do have a few favourite recipes. Delia, who has written a whole book on the subject, says that anyone can make a cake - like her sponge cake above - they just need the right recipe. Which is probably right. I certainly maintain this to be true of cooking in general. But you do need the right equipment - and Aldi is ready to step into the breach.
Interestingly though, it doesn't look like Aldi is expecting you to make the cake from scratch, as they are also pushing various cake mixes, so at least half the work is done for you. The emphasis is on the decorating. And I have to admire them for showing a cake, that though elaborate looking, actually doesn't look impossible to achieve. It has a touch of the home-made about it.
So first of all you need the tins - and I have to say I have no idea what those white plastic inserts are in some of them.
But then you come to the real game in town - the decoration. For this you need all the fiddly bits. Although a tiny bit mind-blowing to me, I do know that there are whole shops dedicated to just this part of the process. Obviously you can now buy ready-made icing, and cutters of every conceivable shape - and is that a rolling pin with cutters on it? Ingenious.
When I was young there did exist hundreds and thousands and little silvery balls you could put on top, but that is just about all I can remember in the way of decorative elements.
Today there is a whole industry - no - series of industries dedicated to making, and even more importantly, to decorating cakes. There is the equipment. There are the ingredients. There are the patisseries and cake shops that do the whole thing for you and make you despair of ever getting close to anything looking as good. And there are the workshops, courses and You-Tube videos that show you how to do it. I remember my daughter-in-law making a superb looking princess cake each for her two daughters, whose birthdays are close together. And it actually didn't look too hard either. It all came from a You-Tube video.
I had a quick look at birthday cakes for kids and I have to say some of them were amazing - here's a very tiny selection.
I always felt incredibly daunted at the prospect of birthday cakes. Others seemed to be able to do such fantastic things. And there was no You-Tube to show you how in those days. So I often chickened out and got the children to decorate them themselves, and then there was no shame in it looking lopsided and messy. It tasted Ok anyway and there were always the candles to blow out.
But today there is a real frenzy about making cakes and making the kind of cakes that look elaborate. Cup cakes are the ultimate I suppose - but that, as I said - is for another day.
I do make cakes - but like Delia says - I make them for special occasions. Well semi-special occasions. When there is a gathering of people. Just two people cannot eat a whole cake between them. And I tend to make cakes that don't rely on their decoration. Things like Claudia Roden's famous orange cake, or an apple cake that I have been making for years. Cakes that are moist and tasty. For the other thing it seems to me, is that these immaculate looking cakes are often not all that wonderful when you actually get past the decoration and at the cake.
Anyway I'm glad I'm not a mum these days and have to produce the perfect birthday cake. The pressure must be enormous these days. In spite of all that equipment and decorative things, you've still got to put it all together, and I suspect I would fail. Mind you this one looks pretty simple. I could probably manage that!
