reasons #548 and #549 why I'm lame

#548... I didn't realize how old I turned yesterday. I think I may have been telling people I am a year older for a while now. My bad, how often do you really think of your age though??

#549... after I have been going on about cake for MONTHS I remembered something last night. I don't really like cake and frosting. I haven't had a piece of cake in about 2 years. My niece made a really cool cake when I visited family a couple of years ago. I only had a small sliver before heading for the airport on the way back home though because we were there to camp at some Utah elevation so never stuck around my sister's house. Before that I think my last cake was for my undergrad graduation when I ordered a poppyseed cake with raspberry whipped filling and buttercream frosting with flowers from Ramone's Bakery in Eureka, CA.

The cake I just made was actually pretty good. I modified the recipe to include 3/4 c. + 1/3 c. of agave nectar instead of sugar. I used 2/3 c. of buttermilk instead of 1 c. And I cooked the cake for the same amount of time in a 300 degree oven instead of 325.


The big issues came with the frosting. My poor fiance has never realized what frosting is made of. When I bought Crisco vegetable shortening he seriously grossed out. He looked at pre-packaged frosting and had no idea how fatty that stuff is. When I made the frosting last night I did the crisco and cream cheese then mixed with a bit of agave nectar. It was really gooey, it would never hold in the tropics! I added some 100% all fruit preserve for the filling and it was gross so I wiped it off the cake and instead put on some of the 100% raspberry preserve on its own. I made icing with Crisco, food coloring, almond flavoring, and agave nectar. It came out shocking pink and I packed it in a mendhi cone, but the stuff was either too thick or started to rapidly melt. I know I am have not practiced applying mendhi in a while, but this stuff was really hard to work with and my design came out craptastic once I gave up after applying a sorry peacock on the top of the cake.

Overall the frosting/icing/filling part of the cake was a fiasco. So if you don't like me then you are probably getting all sorts of satisfaction from this part of the post. If you do like me then I hope you find this also kind of funny.


I think I reacted like a little kid to the prospect of missing out on something, you want it more. My sugar cane allergy means I can't have a regular cake made so I have been obsessing over cake for months now. I honestly forgot that I don't like cake & frosting.

So where does this leave me? I don't know, cakes and frosting are pretty. I may be cool with a regular cake I can't eat. One that I'll still cut into with my fiance and then I'll eat some grilled pineapple or something. I may be stubborn and try to work out a frosting recipe that works better. I may go the croquembouche route. I don't know.

As far as last night the realization came when I had a slice of cake and immediately ate around the frosting leaving a carcass of sweet on my plate. I realized that has been my cake eating method for as long as I can remember because I have never liked frosting. Not even as a kid. And I also remembered that despite attending a number of weddings I have never had a slice of wedding cake, I have always passed.