This is the story of a cake, a couple of birthday girls and a hurricane named Irene.
One of my greatest joys is making sure that children have a special cake for their big days. Often, I offer to make something for my friends’ children, and so this year, when my friend Carolina mentioned that her daughter, Lily, was having a very intimate get- together for her 10th birthday, I suggested that I bring over a red velvet cake. This was before I knew that a category 2-3 (at the time, it was later downgraded) hurricane was headed straight toward us.
It is birthday central around here, so I had a lot of work to do to get ready. My girls were preparing for their parties, and I also wanted to do something for Lily. Often, I bake and freeze. For example, I might make some muffins, freeze them, and take them out as needed throughout the week. Waste not, want not, and this ensures that the baked goods stay fresh and last. Strangely but fortunately, my children did not inherit my intense sweet tooth, and they are usually satisfied with just a little sweet indulgence. Anyway, last weekend, my youngest daughter, Colombe, turned 5, and she wanted an ice cream cake. No problem. We baked a two-layer cake, reserving half for her big sister Margot’s birthday which happens to be tomorrow but which we celebrated over the long weekend. Then we made an ice cream layer for each cake and obviously froze those. I figured that all of this prep work left me plenty of time to work on Lily’s cake a little closer to her party.
And then it started raining. While Colombe sat on the floor with her Magic 8 Ball repeatedly asking if she would really have a party (it kept replying “It’s Doubtful”), my husband and I prepared our home for the very worst. I froze potable water and made sure we had tons of batteries; he moved cars so that were we trapped in our driveway we could walk to a safe location and escape. Though the guest list was slightly altered, we did in fact manage to round up enough kids to have the party for poor Colombe. It was a simple affair that included just cake for the kids and champagne for the adults. Later, we had to use the left over champagne to trap the swarm of fruit flies that had invaded our kitchen. Pricey trap, but it sure worked!
We went to bed that night hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. We did not at all expect what happened in the morning: Irene hadn’t done much to our property, but she left us without power for 5 straight days.
And I hadn’t made Lily’s cake.
No power posed a problem for baking. You see, many new gas ranges and ovens have a safety feature that won’t allow any natural gas to be released without the presence of electricity. This meant that I was left to cook exclusively on our grill for 5 days. The first two days were mostly about grilling everything left in my freezer and then luring neighbors over to eat it. Honestly, I will not be eating burgers for a long time to come after this experience. However, as we closed in on Lily’s birthday celebration, I started to panic a little. I do not like to break promises, and I especially don’t like to do so when children and dessert are involved. So, I started thinking and decided that I could make a red velvet cake on the grill.
We have a gas grill with a temperature gauge on the front. Thus, I knew that I could keep the temperature at a steady 350 degrees and not ruin the flavor with lighter fluid or charcoal. Then, upon further investigation, I noticed that there was a removable rack in the grill that was wide enough to hold most of the 9” cake pans that I was using. I found some rocks to prop up the other side of the pans to ensure that the cakes would neither tip nor be lopsided. This ensured that the cake would bake fairly evenly and that the bottom wouldn’t be directly on the grate which would have caused it to burn. And then I mixed up the batter and voila! I had a red velvet cake.
(the rigging)
(baking nicely)
(all done!)
And that it where the story should end, but it doesn’t.
Half way through the baking, I realized that I hadn’t put sugar in the batter. Please note that I drink a triple shot of espresso every morning before breakfast and at this point, I hadn’t had a proper coffee drink in several days. I wasn’t thinking particularly clearly.
At first I panicked and considered kicking a tree in frustration, but then I remembered an old trick that I learned as an intern for wedding cake designer, Elisa Strauss of Confetti Cakes. I remembered that wedding cake designers brush their cakes with simple syrup to ensure moisture. I dumped simple syrup on to ensure sweetness.
And you know what, it worked!
(the finished product)
I told my friend the whole story, and I even went so far to make an angel food cake (this one wasn’t allergy-free) to make it up to poor Lily. I couldn’t bring myself to attend the party because I was so ashamed of my foolish error, but then I got the news that not only was the cake a success at the party, but Lily and her siblings polished it off at breakfast the next day and started in on the angel food cake that night.
The moral of the story is that nothing gets between me and my baking projects, not a storm with a lot of bark and not too much bite, not the lame old Long Island Power Authority. Throughout the week, the girls and I (who were alone because my husband left on Monday morning) talked a lot about how almost nothing is impossible if you work hard enough at it. This cake on the grill experience was an excellent affirmation that the little cheer that my elementary school gym teacher, Mr. Krejci, used to say is really true: You can do it, you can do it, if you put your mind to it, oh yeah!
