Pinterest Inferiority Complex.

Is this a medically recognised disorder? Because it really should be. Backing up a bit, over the long weekend, we loaded the car with children and headed south to meet up with the rest of my husband’s family (or most of), in honour of a couple of big birthdays happening this year. Plus you know, it’s nice to see everyone and give our adorable nieces big squishy hugs. But as my fabbo sister-in-law offered to do the running around for gifts, I figured my effort could be the cake. In what *seemed* like a good idea at the time, I hit up Pinterest – isn’t that the whole point of Pinterest? No. No it’s not. The point of Pinterest, dear readers, is to beat you over the head with the inferiority stick until all your hopes and dreams and shredded to dust and wafting away on an autumn breeze.

Yes. That is a genuine Facebook update from yours truly. Holy guacamole there are some talented cake people out there. I am not one of them. I love making cakes for my children’s birthdays, but “impressive” isn’t the term I’d use. I think “mumsy” is closer to the mark. So I sulked for a bit, and then got thinking. As we were travelling, I wanted a flat-ish cake, and not over the top fancy that could easily get destroyed. In the end, I decided on a caramel mudcake with royal icing (I thought would travel better than buttercream. Aaaaannnd, since this was my first caramel mudcake, it also means it fits in my Twenty Treats project! Which is LONG overdue for an update.

PROJECT PROGRESS: 12/20

OCCASSION: Big zero birthdays for two family members

BRIEF & RATIONALE: A yummy, fancy cake, that would travel well, and would appeal to most of the group

SOURCE: Everyone loves Google. I found this recipe on the taste.com.au website

EASE OF MAKING: 8/10 – some melting, but all hand mixing and comes together quite quickly after the intermediate cooling step.

CHILD FRIENDLY? Not overly – the first stage is all melting stuff over the stove, then twenty minutes cooling, then mixing into the warm mix. Might be do-able with older children (I think Bear and probably Boy2 would be able to help out, Butterfly not so much)

REALITY V COOKBOOK: 9/10 – pretty close

TASTE: 7/10 – I found this recipe to taste very much of the dark brown sugar I used. Maybe it didn’t caramelise enough? Or maybe my idea of what a caramel mudcake should be is skewed by commercial versions.

FINAL VERDICT: Direct quote from Mr Dove “why don’t you make this cake for ME?” Poor baby, such a neglected husband he is, isn’t he? I explained it was the first time I’d used it, and he was happy with another piece and the reassurance I would bake it again. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

The finished decorated cake. I originally planned to make the numbers out of icing in the contrasting colour, but I couldn’t find any nice number stamps at our local baking shop. They did, however, have these cute blingy numbers. Plus that then freed up some extra royal icing for paying the chef! (though my “helpers” were quite adamant they needed a share too, cheeky little rotters).

Froday went from cruisy to busy, and we ended up having a few appointments and errands jammed into our morning. Now it’s an hour until pick up and so much is still yet to get done. Or maybe I’ll ignore it all and kick back and rest with the small people for a little while, and play catchup tomorrow. That sounds much more appealing…