two parties, two cakes and one great lady

As promised I am back with details of Great Nana's 101st birthday.

On Friday we had party number one at the place where she lives.

 

This is not the cake made by me but one ordered from a local bakery for the aged care facility where she lives.

When the cake arrived the bakery refused payment- saying that anyone who lived to be that age deserved a free cake!

(her name is actually not Dot but Charlotte- which she hates and she also hates Lot or Lotty, so somewhere in her long life she ended up with the nickname Dot- which is rather funny as she also had a sister called Dot,, luckily they didn't live in the same town!)

Cutting the cake with VCH's mother (her daughter)

 

 This is a photo of the family that attended the morning tea- I am on the left next to Great Nana.

Now onto the party on Saturday- her actual birthday.

 

 Here is the cake I made in all it's glory.

The cakes are iced in dark chocolate ganache and then I just edged them in white chocolate rectangles, tied on with some cream and gold ribbon and then I topped it with strawberries, some of which are dipped into chocolate and gold and silver sprinkles.

 B1 got the candles from the shop he works at;

they came in one day last week and he grabbed them as he was unpacking the boxes knowing I was after some, they caused quite a conversation when he went to pay for them, as the other assistant couldn't work out why he wanted 101 in candles!

There are actually three little stars on the cake, but I didn't realise they were being hidden by the strawberries until after I took the photos.

They were from a cheap shop and sold as fairy wands for party bags.
I thought they would look cute on the top of the cake.

 I am really happy with how the cake looked.

 However I wasn't 100% happy with the cakes.

The middle one which was orange was too dry.

I had planned to do a trial run to make sure they were moist enough as the dextrose soaks up the liquid, but because I was sick I didn't get to.
I did adjust the recipe but obviously not enough.

In hindsight I should have just used sugar as I know it would have been moist.

The mud cake was OK but probably not as moist as it usually comes out, but still nice- I am fussy- I like my cakes moist. 

The top cake, the cherry and coconut was fine.

Even though the stack looks lovely we could have gotten away with just the mud cake on the bottom, as not everyone had cake- the servings at the restaurant are quite generous and we were all very full after our main meal and the small servings I cut were plenty because it is such a rich cake. 

We served it with mixed berries and whipped cream.

The strawberries and the white chocolate around the edges were a big hit.

 Our family with Great Nana.

 VCH's extended family with Great Nana,

I didn't get a photo of the other half of the family.

One last look at the cake.

It was beautiful even if I do say so myself!

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