Pair of cake-making geniuses

So Saturday was all about eating, drinking and drawing on tablecloths. Sunday was all about cake-making. We girls KNOW how to party. And not just any cake but 'divine chocolate birthday cake' so says Mary Berry.

It started badly. I opened a cupboard and a pestle and mortar threw themselves at me and smashed on the floor. Good start. So I picked up all the tiny bits of china from off the floor, then picked out all the really teeny bits from under my fingernails.

Gem Gems was whinging quite considerably about the fact the recipe had no flour and was therefore doomed to failure. It was mostly egg white, ground almonds, sugar, and a lot of chocolate, with chocolate and butter to make the icing. Basically heart-attack cake. So when it turned out quite well we were pleasantly surprised and pretty bloody chuffed. We set about decorating it with glace cherries, white chocolate buttons and Belgian truffles. We had it in mind that it would look dead decadent piled high with chocolates and bejeweled with cherries. BUT, in our excitement we did not let the chocolate icing cool sufficiently. And EVERYTHING started to melt into the chocolate and slide off the side of the cake. Genius.

So we jammed it back into the tin from whence it came, shoved it in the fridge and crossed our fingers. It actually didn't come out too bad considering what a hash we made of it and it tasted amazing - so rich it'll make your face sweat kind of affair. It did look like it had been made by a small child, though bless her mum marveled at how the '50' I had painstakingly crafted out of white chocolate buttons had "melded" seamlessly into the icing. A lesson learnt though, patience is a virtue, always let your icing thoroughly cool before loading it with temperature-sensitive confectionery.