80th birthday cake ideas?

[AJB Temple]

What would you like - all suggestions welcome - if you were 80, attending a special elaborate dinner for 12 (including three grandchildren under 10) for your hand made birthday cake.

Not chocolate. Not fruit, though 1 slice could be, as he likes fruit but apparently no one else does. Iced top at least.

I quite like the idea (never seen it) of a slice of fruit cake slipped into some other cake and then iced over to hide it.

I've got 6 weeks to do my Bake Off winner.

 

[Blackswanwood]

I’d like Parkin. It’s the best cake ever invented.

 

[AJB Temple]

Parkin is ginger oatmeal? Never made it but I might try some. Would it be OK iced as that is a requirement. The guests are not Yorkshire so far as I know.

 

[Ovaloe]

Iced parkin? Far better with a bit o' butter slapped on a slice! BTW parkin is just as much a Lancashire thing what with Liverpool being on the triangle of trade once upon a time for ginger and molasses - despite what the BBC have to say!

 

[Blackswanwood]

I’m afraid it would be an act of heresy to add icing to Parkin

Maybe not for this event but it’s definitely worth giving it a go Adrian.

 

[Cabinetman]

But why cake? How about a big proper sherry trifle, lots of cream custard and jam’ed sponge

 

[Tiresias]

Does the no fruit rule only apply to dried fruit? If so how about something like a fraisier? I have made this a few times when something special seemed to be called for.

And apologies for the quality of the picture, but it’s the best one I could find on my ‘phone just now.



Or you could go with the prinsesstårta I mentioned in the other thread. Or its cousin the operatårta.

 

[AndyP]

My SIL has made a fair few celebration cakes for that generation and errs towards something soft and easy to eat while making sure the 5-a-Day rule is not forgotten.

 

[AJB Temple]

Thanks all. I could not use strawberries or similar as they are not in season 4 weeks from Christmas and being seasonal is a feature of our offering. It has to be a cake as that is what the customer wants. I saw Richard Bertinet make something interesting on Saturday with James Martin so might try that out.

They are also getting a tarte tatin for pudding. Apple or pear.

As you will gather I am not really a cake baker as I don't eat cake much and we never serve cake as puddings. The closest I come usually is burnt Spanish cheesecake. (It's meant to be burnt).

 

[MattS]

I know it misses the brief for the children having coffee syrup but is there a more impressive cake than Opera?

 

[AJB Temple]

That's a good idea Matt. Looks impressive which is what I need. I had completely forgotten about those. I can always do little fairy cakes for the children (all girls) each with a candle. It has a chocolate glaze usually, (chocolate not allowed for some reason) but I can do a glaze.

 

[Tiresias]

They are also getting a tarte tatin for pudding. Apple or pear.

One of these? Although no doubt better done.





That was made from apples from our own trees. Planted about a hundred years ago. Some archaic variety. A russet of some sort. Slightly cinnamon flavour, curiously.

Erm, your seasonality thing. How does that work? Everything is seasonal somewhere. Or do you mean only the main ingredient? (Not being rude, just curious).

Last weekend I could still buy Scottish strawberries. Put them in eau de vie and they’ll be good for a month – actually, probably better. I'm sure in the soft south you can do better than that.

 

[AJB Temple]

Yep - like that, but more in the French style so a bit crispier on top and very thin apples done on the mandolin. We use our own apples as well. They were here before us so we don't know exactly what they all are.

Seasonality - I agree. You are right. We have to have selling points though. Everyone says "seasonal" so it has become meaningless. What we try to do is use vegetable and fruit produce that either we grow ourselves, or is grown by a local farmer we know who produces quite a bit of stuff for restaurants. So really we mean local. Our own strawberries and soft fruits came to an end about three weeks ago and since then we have had very heavy rain (= slugs). All of our meat comes from one of two local farms that are 100% grass certified. Chicken / duck / goose / turkey all comes from less than a mile away. Game comes from Marden which is close by and where our bee mentor lives. Mushrooms are all fairly local - the furthest away is Aylesford. We do not use imported pork (most supermarket pork is imported hence very cheap and a lot of produce is "farmwashed"). Pork is important as it keeps menu prices down and we make our own sausages, salami etc. We are inland so fish is not local but practically all of it comes from boats on the coast about 30 miles from us. We have an arrangement with our butcher that he will dry age for us, so I order 2 months ahead and pick it up on the day I need it. Our stuff is labelled up in his dry age cabinet as we don't have one ourselves.

 

[Dr.Al]

I'm not sure if this is the sort of idea you're after, but have you considered some sort of cake decorated to look like something from his youth (e.g. a cartoon he liked as a child). Might be a nice touch and would probably appeal to the children at the party too.

 

[Windows]

Here’s an article on British winter strawberries: https://www.fruitnet.com/fresh-prod...tish-strawberries-at-christmas/262818.article

I would describe these as local, but not seasonal.

 

[AJB Temple]

Thanks for the article. I had not seen that. I shall be interested to try them. We spend fair bit of time in the Netherlands and Germany and have tried the winter strawberries that the Dutch and Belgians grow under glass (with oodles of state subsidised energy). Mostly they use a hydroponic system and LEDs / UV to boost daylight I believe. The top producer has 50 hectares under glass - it's quite a sight to visit one of their farms. The berries are grown in a kind of hyrdroponic tray with gravel made of coco, but I am sure they wash nutrients through as well, though I don't know what. They even have pollinator hives in the glasshouses. Although they look like strawberries in my admittedly limited experience, and despite grower claims to the contrary, they are a very different product to those grown in the ground and sun ripened.

Not sure that when we are having an energy crisis, it is a good use of resources to grow crops that are not naturally in season in northern europe, but the Dutch do support their agri industry like they mean it. You don't see much re-wilding.

 

[AJB Temple]

I'm not sure if this is the sort of idea you're after, but have you considered some sort of cake decorated to look like something from his youth (e.g. a cartoon he liked as a child). Might be a nice touch and would probably appeal to the children at the party too.

Thanks. These are clients not friends, and it needs to make money for us. If they want super bespoke that's fine but they need to ask for it. There is a limit to what one can charge for a cake, unless it is a wedding event.

 

[Dr.Al]

Thanks. These are clients not friends, and it needs to make money for us. If they want super bespoke that's fine but they need to ask for it. There is a limit to what one can charge for a cake, unless it is a wedding event.

Ah, fair enough. I assumed it was for friends.