08/08/08 A never to be repeated date – in my lifetime anyway.
08/08/08 is an interesting date for my family. It’s my daughter Sarah’s 21st birthday. Being born in August meant that she was one of the youngest in her year group throughout her school years. She invited her three closest girl friends who have all already celebrated their 21st birthdays and their boy friends (fiancée in one case) to a meal at local restaurant in Heswall on the Wirral where we live
A friend of mine hired a stretch limo to take them across to Liverpool afterward and drop them off wherever they wanted to go – clubbing/drinking etc. I decided as a bit of fun, to do “the picture on a cake thing” which is usually done for little kids. I found a lovely picture of her when she was 1yr old cropped it and emailed it to eatyourphoto.co.uk who sent me the picture printed on a very thin icing sheet by return post.
I was offered the bottom layer of a wedding cake by a local wedding cake specialist for £50 (the cake had been cancelled as the bride had to go into hospital at short notice). I then discovered that ASDA supermarkets offer “picture on a cake” as an all in one service. You go in with a photographic print which they scan and print on rice-paper and stick onto the cake of your choice in the store. It just shows the importance of researching a project thoroughly before you begin.
£50 may be a bargain for the bottom layer of a 3 tier wedding cake but a large dry-iced ASDA sponge cake (about £15) was more like what I required. Then I had to buy a tube of pink decorating icing so I could write her name on it and of course a bunch of fancy candles and some plastic numbers for the 21.
It took ages to get the icing sheet picture off the backing paper by heating up a baking sheet to 180 degrees centigrade in the oven, placing paper on it and then the picture on top of the paper as per the enclosed instructions. This gently drives off the moisture (which is what makes it stick) and then it can be removed from the backing sheet. I had to heat it this way twice to get it off (it was a very humid day). Then I slightly wet the top of the cake’s icing and put the icing sheet picture down on it. Quite nerve-wracking because the icing sticks to the cake immediately so you have to get it on straight first time.
According to Sarah it all went very well, she and everyone else loved the cake concept but they’d all had dessert and no one wanted to cut into the lovely picture so to cut an even longer story short I’ve now got the cake back at home and as yet - no one has even taken a bite out of it!
I asked her friends to take a picture of it so when I get hold of one I’ll add it to this post!
As you would expect all the excitement, celebrations and playing around with cakes has ended up playing havoc with my coursework this week. I’m now well behind and will have to spend next week playing catchup.