Excitement abounding....

Despite the fact that I only got about six hours of sleep last night (I purchased hangers and under-the-bed storage thingies from Woolworths and went to town finally sorting out all of my clothing), I am painfully wide-awake at midnight, and this is without benefit of a midday nap. A couple of weeks ago, after remarking to a classmate that I couldn't figure out why my sweet tooth had decided to go on such a rampage, it was suggested that my California body might not be fully acclimated to London gloom and thus sluggish due to lack of vitamin D. So to compensate, my mutinous body sent my sugar cravings into overdrive in order to get some quick energy. Not sure about the sugar part, but the vitamin D made sense. So I went out and bought a boring generic multivitamin supplement from Boots, and sure enough, I feel peppy again. Might just be a placebo, but I'm willing to take what I can get.

I might also be up due to massive sugar intake this evening. Conrad announced yesterday morning that I needed to make a cake for the charity cake sale at his school. Excited to be able to bake without getting yelled at for contributing all those calories and fat grams to the family's diet, I eagerly dove into all my cookbooks and recipes. I wound up decided on the "Triple Layer Lemon Cake" from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. After reading the recipe through a couple of times (and over-indulging in some very delectable chicken enchiladas), I decided that I really didn't want to make the cake just to hand it over to be sold for charity. I wanted a piece too. So I doubled the recipe. Well, I'm pretty sure I doubled the recipe. Rather than six, I only managed four layers, and they were pretty thin layers at that. Not sure what happened, because I know I did all the math right and doubled all the ingredients. Anyway, because I doubled the recipe I ran out of butter just as I was getting ready to make the frosting. Rats. The two cakes would have to wait....

I picked up some butter on my way home this afternoon and waited until I picked up Conrad and his friend, Jack, thinking that two boys would love to help make frosting, especially when I get towards the end and have to test it for taste and consistency. They did. I didn't do anything fancy for the cake I made for the family, just slapped on some frosting.

The cake for the sale, on the other hand, is really quite fancy-looking. The decoration itself was easy to do, just little rosettes using this nifty reusable piping bag that Sonja has. The finished product, however, looks like I put a hell of a lot more time into it:



















I am really quite proud of myself. And I had loads of fun along the way. I always tell people that one of the big reasons why I'd never open up a bakery is that I love baking way too much. If I had to do it for a job, instead of just for kicks, there's a high possibility that it would lose its fun-ness and I'd no longer be interested in it. And those of you that have tasted any of my baked goods would agree that a loss of fun-ness would be a terrible thing indeed.

By the way, the cake is beyond fantastically tasty. It tastes exactly like Costco's Lemon Cooler Cake. Oh yeah. It's amazing.