Thursday, February 14, 2013

Let them eat cake

I have always, since my boys started at pre-school, spent some serious dedicated hours baking and decorating some kind of sweet treat for my boys to take to school and share with their class on their birthday.  I am used to supplying up to 60 cupcakes, chocolate brownies or decorated biscuits.  Even when we started a new business that ate up mountains of my time, I managed to get the task done.  Although...... I should admit that the one year I ran out of time and thus cheated by purchasing a box each of marshmallow easter eggs for Max and Connor to share out.  It's at a moment such as this that you rather appreciate the retail trade getting stock onto the shelves 3 months in advance!

This year, since the boys have started at High School, I have been constantly reminded by them, that they are grown-ups now and none of this junior stuff' like PDA's and photography especially, will be allowed in public.  Yip, they're teenagers, that's for sure.  Along with the new rules and regulations set out by my sons, I assumed that this also meant no baking for the class - hooray!  But....you know what they say, to assume makes an ass out of you and me (ass-u-me)!  Anyhoo, late yesterday afternoon my darlings pose the question "So mom what are you making for school tomorrow?  My teacher is really hoping it's cake, he likes cake" Well knock me down with a feather and call me a doctor because I'm about to have a panic attack!

 Breathing deeply into the paperbag, I gather my thoughts and think, no problem!  We'll just rehash the Easter egg cheat of 2010.  Hey, it's not cake but who doesn't love chocolate? I fly down to our little KwikSPAR only to find that there are NO boxes of marshmallow eggs on the shelves yet.  Seriously, not one, not even from last years left overs!  I want to scream at someone, to shake them and yell hysterically "What is wrong with you people?  How can you not have Easter eggs out yet?  Do you not know it’s February already?"  When my heart slows to a reasonable pace and oxygen returns to my brain, I move towards the cake table and start to peruse its wares.  

Okay so R32.99 for 9 dinky iced cup-cakes *gulp*.  I need 7 packs and look, there are only 4 – freaking out here!  Think woman, think!  The Swiss Roll is too small and there are only two of those anyway…..  How I hadn’t noticed them in the first place is quite ridiculous, but there they were, my saving grace!  At least 12 packets of un-iced Queen cakes with 10 in a packet for R16.99 .  I grabbed 6 packets, a bag of icing sugar and a tub of coloured sprinkles and headed home.

I gave the boys a quick lesson on how to sieve icing sugar and add water, thus producing a very simple but deliciously sweet Glace’ topping.  Together, we dolloped a generous white coat onto each little queen, sprinkled her in colour and added a sparkle of bling using edible gold glitter I found lurking in the grocery cupboard. Wow! good enough to eat and no one was ever going to suspect those little beauties were shop bought!  Happy Days, my Domestic Goddess and Supermom status remains untarnished and the boys’ teachers can have their cake and eat it!



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