Birthday cake adventures

Pretty? Yeah, that's what I thought and that's where I went wrong. 

I chanced upon this beautiful Pink cake with Aqua cream topping (well, the original cake had a Tiffany-blue frosting, which is almost the same) and I fell in love with how pretty it looked. So mesmerised I was with it that I chose to ignore the core ingredient in the cake - Maraschino cherries. 

Really? Maraschino cherries? Cocktail cherries? Even with alcohol they taste medicinal - a cake with Maraschino cherries? What was I thinking?

Well, I obviously hoped the baking process and the combination of the cherries with butter, flour, sugar and almond meal would transform it somehow.

I decided to make this cake for my own birthday earlier this week (there really is nothing wrong with making your own birthday cake, I believe). As expected, the cake looked fabulous. 

But, what of the taste? 

Well, lets just say you have to LOVE Maraschino cherries to like this cake. Love, not like. I don't and so I didn't enjoy the cake at all. The flavour of those cherries are just too strong. But, taste is subjective and I suppose if you've tried and like cherry cola, you might like this cake (for it does taste an awful look like it). 

Owww! Happy Birthday, Me! What, now? What was I to do with a whole cake I didn't like? At all?

More importantly, what cake was I going to eat on my birthday? I had no choice. I had to make another one because what's a birthday with no cake, right?

This time, I decided not to experiment with strange flavours but to stick to the familiar. Raspberries (yum), coconut (yum, yum) and lemon curd (oh, so yum). Couldn't go that wrong with that right?

Thankfully, the second cake was a good one.

I'll start with the frosting - simple whipped cream with lemon curd. Light-ish and not too sweet with the tang of lemon. Yum. 

The cake was moist and not too sweet. Loaded with raspberries - I used frozen whole raspberries, chopped roughly AND some puree and combined with shredded coconut (unsweetened), this cake was a vast improvement from the cherry disaster even if it didn't look quite so vibrant.

So, all's well that ends well - I had my cake and ate it too! And now I'm left with another which I have no idea what I'm going to do with.