Davids' first birthday was one of the few exceptions. You know how it is. First child. First birthday. I was planning it for a good two months - the guest list, the presents and very importantly, the menu. Risto cooked a goat on the spit. I practically lived in the kitchen for three days making the biggest dish of moussaka I'd ever put together, all my fancy salads too fiddly for every day, baklava, lemon tart and a sacher torte birthday cake. And we gathered together all of the people we loved best and who, we knew, genuinely and truly loved us. The people who I had relied on throughout my life. The people I wanted to share this joyful and special occasion with.
Even when it's a much smaller affair though, the menu planning is a very important part of the preparation. It's a good excuse to get out the 'special' recipes. No fast food parties for us. There is some serious cooking to be done and other things must wait.
Last year David desperately wanted me to make a Black Forest Cake he had seen on Masterchef. Not for his birthday, mind you. For Jovankas' second birthday. It had been a four hour challenge on Masterchef. The jolly thing took me three days to build and a shopping list of ingredients that looked foreign in my trolley. This was no ordinary black forest cake. There were cherries soaked in brandy, layers of chocolate ganache, chocolate hazelnut praline mousse, and multiple other layers of chocolate on chocolate on chocolate. Recipe is here. It all got put together late at night....the night of Jovankas' birthday, after a day climbing the You Yangs, the local mountain range. Did I mention that I was 32 weeks pregnant with my fourth child at the time?....And had climbed all the way to the top - a feat I would not normally expect I could acheive when not pregnant. So, 10 o'clock at night, we sang Happy Birthday, Jovanka blew out her candles, we ate cake amidst the wreckage still on the kitchen table (sorry to say that this wreckage is the reason I wouldn't let photos be taken of this glorious cake.....something I now regret) and we went, exhausted, to bed. It was a very good day.
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| It's a bit of a cheat, I know, but since I didn't take any photos of our cake, here is the official Masterchef version. Ours looked almost as good.....really!!! Next morning, David introduced the idea of a Macaron Tower with Kalamata Olive and Beetroot and Raspberry Macarons for Aristos' fourth birthday, two months ahead. Keep in mind that I am, at that stage, 32 weeks pregnant....and I began to question the wisdom of allowing him to watch Masterchef. This year David has taken over the cake operation for Jovankas' third birthday. He has designed it himself, based on a recipe he made up almost twelve months ago. After a couple of attempts to describe the structure that the cake should take, his poorly concentrating Mama asked him to diagram it so I could see what we were in for. Once that was done and each of the 'elements' discussed (yes we watch WAY too much Masterchef) it was decided that a practice run might be a good idea. Just to make sure it would work - no last minute surprises or disappointments for something so important as his little sisters' birthday cake. Thank heavens we did that practice run. Because now I know that the chocolate dome will work, we will need double the quantity of strawberries we first estimated (unfortunately they are not in season, unless we live somewhere else so I am cringing a little at the idea of including them) and I will be required to make triple, oh yes, triple the quantity of chocolate mousse that I made this time around.  Most importantly we know that the whole thing, when put together, tastes exquisite because we had to eat the practice run, complete with a rehearsal of us all singing Happy Birthday and Jovanka blowing out the candles. Perhaps when we get to the real thing, I'll make sure the kitchen table is clean enough to take a photo, or maybe just let pride go to the four winds and take a photo amidst the wreckage. |
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