This is a mere picture of the world's most fabulous chocolate cake!
It's officially birthday season and on top of the usual things I have planned to do around the house and in my studio as the year comes to an end, there is also the obligatory birthday projects to think about as well. I am a bit ashamed to admit that I am a few quilts behind on current birthdays. This isn't because of lack of time, but moreso, lack of will. Those of you who follow my blog will know that last year my DD outrightly rejected the beautiful fabrics I had gone to such lengths to purchase in secret online....only to be told that she would not tolerate a quilt made up of those prints.
It sounds awful (and it was a blow to my stash busting shelf) but at least I saved myself the effort of making the quilt. Some of you have children who might in time grow to love their 'not wanted quilts', but this simply isn't a possibility in this case. So I still have the fabric and here we are again. Another birthday. The fabric is still sitting on my shelf in need of a good project. So when my DD requested a Sacher Torte for her birthday, well, that was something I knew I could order online and know that she would LOVE.
It was so easy. My only annoyance was that the postage cost as much as the cake itself. And after calculating for worldwide shipping (it can take up to 14 days) it actually arrived 4 days later, immaculately packed and chilled. This cake actually improves with age so the extra days sitting packed in our fridge made no difference, and probably improved it.
I was planning on taking a photo of the cut cake - but forgot all about photographs when it came to the eating. Sorry!
It's a flatish cake - a true torte and if you've ever had a real Sacher Torte you'll know that it's difficult to describe justly in a world of mud cakes and fudge cakes (which can also be good) but Sacher is of course, in a league of its own. There are a few cafes around that claim to have the recipe, but after tasting the original again (the last time I tasted it was in Vienna a few years ago), they really don't come close.
So now I just have to decide what cake to have for my birthday next month. My DH has claimed The Meringue (my daughters make him this cake several times each year, always changing the recipe!!) and the cake I would dearly love to enjoy "the Dobos" is beyond our cake making skills, so this is still undecided...
Actually, talking about cakes gets me thinking that it is really so hard to come across great cake recipes that actually work in home settings. I'm sure we've all made 'cook book' cakes that just didnt live up to their promise. For myself, I often bake old recipes from memory - and they turn out fine, but I should probably commit them to paper for my DD's.
Do you have a trusted cake that you have each year on your birthday - or at any other time? Please share the recipe if you can, I would love to try some new favourites...and with Christmas baking around the corner, now is a great time to grease the cake tin
And here is my milkmaid. As you can see, I could use some help with drawing faces. I know many quilters are very good at drawing faces so I know you will all do better at this than me! My milkmaid leaves much to be desired, infact my DD suggested that 'no face' would have looked better. I agree! 
As so much of my work is based on my own sketches, transporting that into a design is proving tricky. In some ways it's much quicker to draw up a design by hand...but of course, I do want to strive for improvement and printed designs look better.
