A little background on why it is a big deal to me. I've been wanting to make a cake for 4 years and have never been able to start from scratch. For some reason or the other it never happened. Now I have a 7 month old, teething little princess who wants me by her side all the time. ALL THE TIME. I really love the man in my life and have been wanting to do something special for him, for a while. He is the most important person in my life and there isn't anything more I would want to do than to give him something special and with his birthday just around the corner I saw it as an opportunity to get myself to do it. My husband's birthday was the on the 23rd of January so I just had a couple of days in hand.
I had a strong intention to do it and I was driven by love. So I started preparing myself by reading up stuff. The next two days life tested my intention because my daughter was teething real bad. She was putting up with the pain as much as she could and I love my little strong darling like I would no one else. I literally didn't have a minute for myself. So, you guessed it, I began doubting if I could or not.
I decided to ask for help. I had a neighbor friend who is very helpful and understanding. I decided to ask her to help me because she was an expert. Shwetha agreed to help me and I was absolutely pleased with myself; this was Friday, January 20. I asked my husband to get me the stuff I would need. I didn't know what I would need, did some research and got my list together and also asked Shwetha for guidance. She gave me the list and told me that she had everything needed except for Vanilla extract and cocoa powder. But yet, I went ahead and got all the other ingredients (which I am glad I did) too because I didn't want to empty her kitchen and baking supplies.
Life threw me a lemon when I had no intention of making a lemonade. I woke up to a message from Shwetha. Her son was sick and down with a viral infection and she was heading to the hospital. She said she would still help me after she came back home ad her son felt a little better. I felt really bad for her and didn't want to trouble her at a point like this. So I told her it was okay and not that important. It was important to me but, definitely shouldn't be for her. With a sick child, I believe a mother can concentrate on nothing else. I was completely depressed and upset. Didn't know where to start or how to start. I didn't know if I should do anything or just let life take its course. That is when my husband convinced me that it was fine and to do what I could. It was his birthday and he insisted I do what I could because this man believed in me more than I ever did. And now I know why I love this man more than I do anything or anyone else in my life.
I got myself to accept that perfection isn't as important as starting something. At around 6:30 p.m. on January 21st he went shopping. He gathered every utensil I thought I might need. It took a ridiculously long time and he came back home at around 9:00 in the night because he still couldn't get many of the stuff. The problem was we had no clue where to find what we were searching for. Finally I get my daughter to sleep and get to the kitchen to start. I didn't find baking powder. I was lost and that was the moment I literally broke down. I told my husband who assured me that he would get it, right away. He headed to Shoprite that was open until 1:00 am. He just had ten minutes and I was sure it wasn't gonna happen, but it did. He came back home and I was all set to start.
My husband was back home and I was just about to start when my daughter woke up. She was crying, I had to compose myself, got her to sleep and then came back to start at around 1:30 a.m. Yes I literally started making the cake at around 1:30 a.m.
Ingredients for making cake:
- 2 1/4 cups of All-purpose flour
- 1 1/3 cups of Powdered sugar
- 1 cup Milk
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 3 teaspoons of Baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of Baking soda
- 1/4 cup of Applesauce in substitute for eggs.
- 1/2 cup of butter
In a bowl I filled and combined all the dry ingredients. Then went ahead and added butter cut into small cubes, a few cubes at a time, and mixed it until the batter appeared grainy with a sand-like texture to it, I used a hand mixer because that's what I had. Next, I added the applesauce instead of egg and mixed until it was just combined. Slowly I added the milk, and the vanilla extract one after the other.
Greased two round cake pans and powered the mixture and poured it inside the pan and when I was just about to put into the oven my daughter woke up crying. She had a nightmare, so it took me sometime to get her back to sleep.
Here is my son waiting eagerly for us to get things done so we could go to bed. He never goes to bed without us.
Finally put it into the oven for 30-35 minutes.
There were more air bubbles with all the waiting time, but it was already 3:00 am so I just went ahead let it bake. The instruction asked me to bake until a toothpick inserted into the center came out clean.
Pardon the stove top, with all that was going on I didn't get to take a baking-perfect picture. With the time I spent with my daughter my cake did bake a little more than I expected it to, but it wasn't burnt. I allowed it to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, removed it from the pan, and let it cool completely on the cake table since I did not have the wire rack.
After which I made chocolate ganache as filling and finally frosted it with frosting I made. Every single item of this cake was made from scratch. By the time I completed it, it was 4:00 am. Here is my final proud product of pure passion and love. It isn't perfect but it is the best I've made.
For my love, for my man, for myself and this time I did not let life take its course, amidst all odds I made a cake. He loved it and I am so happy with this cake, it tasted so much better than all the store bought cakes I've ever tasted. To me this is a milestone I've conquered. His birthday is tomorrow and this one is for the man who has inspired me in ways he can never imagine. Love you Ganesh and Happy birthday, this is for you!
Sometimes, when life throws a lemon we need to make a cake.
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