Half way there... phew!

Salam alaikum!

A short while ago, I finally got to take my mind off the Birthday cake I've been making for my cousin since 3 pm. It is now 1:03 am precisely. I am covered in layers of kitchen grime and grease, my hair is sticky and my glasses could need a good scrubbing too.

Is it complete? No, sadly. I had planned to finish with the process by 12 pm, shove the cake in to the deep freezer and forget about it till 5 pm tomorrow.

I've been cracking eggs all day... 2o, in total! And separating the yolk and the white too! Besides, think of how much flour, sugar, etc. went along with those eggs! I might make it seem like an army will be present at the birthday party... well... almost an army. :)

Anyway, the reason this cake is not yet done is that when I started with the icing, I discovered that we had "castor" sugar, not "icing" sugar. Why bother going to the market and gettign another pack when you've got a working grinder in the kitchen? I ground up a lot of sugar as "home-made" icing sugar but obviously didn't get it very well refined. Anyway, a whole chunk of butter and a couple of cups of "home-made" icing sugar later, the icing was grainy - duh!

That couldn't work so sms-ed my mother to ask her to get a packet of thick cream on her home from some errand. She got my the cream and I'd just started to complain how the dairy people were cheating on us by selling thin, liquidy cream when I realized my mother had mistakenly bought a 250 ml pack of milk! Couldn't blame her, the packaging is 99.9% identical, except the part where they say "Haleeb - the thickest milk!" instead of "Haleeb - the thickest cream!" as a small sub-title!

Bleucch! Anyway, the time was 9:30 pm. Hurriedly, my mother and I drove down to the nearest market and got a pack of cream!

We then drove not only upto our apartment building but also to the realization that we should have bought icing sugar when we got the cream... anyway, too late. I was inclined to go with the 'grainy' cream but my mother decided to call it a day - put away this cream and start all ofer again in the morning!!!!

I threw a little tantrum at that... I'd been slugging at the cake since 3 pm! Anyway, she didn't budge. No way was she going out for icing sugar again. So... I gave in, put the cake skeleton into the deep freezer and now, eagerly await the morning... 9 am when my mother shall again go to the market and get a new pack of butter and good icing sugar, inshAllah.

The Clown-cake currently is just a round shape for the face, a triangular cone shape for his hat and a bow tie below the face. Enough cake for one day!

Currently, I am putting the finishing touches on my Harry Potter themed costume... I've actually decided to go as Hermione - we're both "insufferable know-it-all's", as Snape would put it.

So what was the point on this post? Introduce you to the pleasures of baking?

No, to show you how things go wrong when Ameera thinks she's planned something perfectly! I can only pray to Allah that things go smoothly tomorrow!

Allah Hafiz!

(By the way, result out on Thursday... pray for me!)