Special Cakes

August 14, 2008
A few weeks ago I was in Michgian having lunch at Debby's. Elizabeth was there and I'm not exactly sure why but she rememebered the birthday cake that I made for TJ's 16th birthday. The thing that she remembered was the raspberry flavor of the cake.

Since it was his 16th birthday and he was getting a driver's license, I made the cake in the shape of a car. I concentrated a raspberry puree and added this to the cake, the filling and the frosting. Even turned the frosting pink with the raspberry flavor. I got carried away with the chocolate decorations. The license plate was "TJ 16". I put 'his' face in the front window, on the side window and he could also be seen in the back window. It was a great taste and that was what she remembered.

Elizabeth liked the raspberry intensity of the cake. Any time you make something, flavour is paramount. I always try to figure out how to intensify flavour... toast nuts, concentrate fruit puree, layer different forms of the same flavour.

My Mom and I went to visit Wendy in Ann Arbor. After lunch at Zingermans, the most fabulous delicatessen on the planet, we stopped at a small bakery called Big City Small World. They make a childhood favorite - Ding Dong's. They had intense chocolatey goodness.

The filling was able to stand up to the summer heat of Michigan. I'm assuming that they had Crisco, eumpemistically known as shortening, in the filling.

I've been contemplating making a Ding Dong birthday cake for someone at work. I just need to get my mind adjusted to the idea of using Crisco in the filling. It's just such a difficult thing to accept when you're trying hard to use the 'best' of ingredients. Of course, Crisco is "the best" itself... you don't really want to buy the generic version of Crisco.

I'm planning to make the cake sometime in the next week or so - I'll keep you posted.