Check out the doodling....little hands sat making pirate faces for ages. After many sheets of paper (recycled) & many scary pirates which were crossed out, we finally had a tick mark from him on one!! Phew...concrete thoughts at last & I could move on!!

His little hands tried hard to make alphabet bones, eventually demolished by the ever watchful elder sister who found them most imperfect. So she did the alphabets, & he happily carried on to mix blue into the marzipan & made the waves. I did the face & the dagger; he came back to add silver to the teeth, & an ear-ring! We made the marzipan deco 2 days before to try & beat the stress. Lesson learnt - marzipan cannot beat birthday stress, but does a yummy cake make!! The cake was delicious & the kids thought it very COOL!!

Grin & bear it!

It's of course another matter that I have suffered a tragedy of sorts where I have lost all the birthday pictures due to some strange 11th June bug sitting in my computer. All the pictures I downloaded during the course of the day have disappeared completely, sadly all the ones of the kids & their friends, the cake cutting...every one of them (except a couple of the cake which I had mailed in the morning). I could have howled coz I had edited them etc & was having a jolly good time with them! I have a few of the cookies I made a couple of days before, but the mini muffins pictures etc are history. Having spent a good 2 days looking for the evasive images, I have decided to let go & move on. (BTW, it's Friday the 13th today; hmmmmm!!)

The basic cake is a Chocolate Genoise from one of my favourite baking sites, Joy of Baking. Genoise is named after its place of origin, Genoa Italy and belongs to the family of light and airy sponge cakes. While the technique for making this batter is similar to that of any sponge cake it does differ in that it contains melted unsalted butter (or clarified butter). The adding of melted butter does produce a more tender and flavorful sponge cake but it also requires us to perform a few extra steps when making the batter.

Recipe as adapted for the basic cake from Joy of Baking. (I made 2 cakes)

Ingredients:
Hot melted unsalted butter or clarified butter - 3 tablespoons
Vanilla extract - 1
Cake flour - 1/2 cup
Cocoa powder - 1/3 cup
Eggs - 4 large
Granulated white sugar - 2/3 cup
Note: When warming the eggs and sugar, whisk constantly to ensure the the eggs do not overheat and curdle.

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Butter, or spray with a vegetable spray, a 9 inch (23 cm) round cake pan and then line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.
• In a small bowl, combine the melted unsalted butter with the vanilla extract. Keep this mixture warm. If needed, re-warm for a few seconds just before using.
• In a medium bowl sift together the flour and cocoa powder. Set aside.
• In a large heatproof bowl whisk together the eggs and sugar. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisking constantly, heat the eggs and sugar until lukewarm to the touch (this will take approximately 5 minutes depending on the temperature of the eggs and the simmering water).
• Remove from heat and transfer the egg mixture to the bowl of your electric mixer. Beat on high speed until the egg mixture has cooled, tripled in volume, and looks like softly whipped cream. This will take approximately 5 minutes and the batter is beaten sufficiently when the batter falls back into the bowl in a ribbon-like pattern.
• Then sift about one-third of the flour mixture over the whipped eggs and fold in using a large rubber spatula or whisk.
• old in half of the remaining flour, and then fold in the rest. Do not over mix or you will deflate the batter.
• hen take about 1 cup of the batter and fold it into the hot butter mixture with a small spatula. (This will lighten the butter mixture and make it easier to incorporate into the egg batter without deflating it.)
• When completely combined, use a spatula to fold the butter mixture completely into the rest of the egg batter. Pour the batter into your prepared pan, smoothing the top.
• Bake until the cake shrinks slightly from the edges of the pan and the top springs back when lightly pressed (about 20-25 minutes). Cool on a metal rack. When the cake has cooled completely, run a small knife or spatula around the edges to release the cake. The génoise will keep well-wrapped two days in the refrigerator or else three months frozen.
• I sandwiched the layers with a chantilly cream, after brushing the layers with melted mixed fruit jam.
• Topped the cake with a dark chocolate ganache, decorated it with marzipan made from scratch (eggless) & chocolate scrolls dusted with powdered sugar.
• Recipe for ganache can be found here.
• Recipe for marzipan can be found here.

" HOSTAGES WILL WALK THE PLANK!!"

• In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs and sugar until creamy and light in colour.
• Add milk and oil, and continue beating until well blended.
• Add vanilla extract to the mixture. Gradually add flour and then beat until the batter is smooth and the dry ingredients are thoroughly incorporated.
• Divide the mixture into 2 equal portions. Keep one portion plain. Add cocoa powder into another and mix well. The color of the cocoa batter should be quite dark, so add more if needed.
• Preheat the oven to 180C. (I lined the bottom of my 9" Victoria sandwich tin & greased & floured the sides.)
• The most important part is assembling the cake batter in a baking pan. This is what you do. Scoop 3 heaped tablespoons of plain batter (you can also use a ladle that would hold 3 tablespoons) into the middle of the baking pan. Then scoop 3 tablespoons of cocoa batter and pour it in the center on top of the plain batter.
• NOTE: Do not spread the batter or tilt the pan to distribute the mixture. It will spread by itself and fill the pan gradually. Continue alternating the batters until you finish them.
• Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes.