Dana's surprise party!

The Cake

I went to the flea market this morning for a quick run through, and found another cobalt Moderntone plate like the one I found the other week. It is so strange how you find one piece of something, and then start seeing it frequently, even if you have never seen one before. I also bought a pink plate that I can't identify. It's a swirl pattern, and per Gene Florence, a lot of the swirl patterns haven't been idenitifed because there were so many of them put out by obscure little glass companies that are long gone. I saw another 3-legged bowl like the one I bought thinking it was Windsor, but in a vile color that would have been a dead give-away if I had noticed it before.

After doing a few things at the house, it was time to head to Russ and Billy's house to get ready for the party. Billy had kindly offered for me to finish icing the cake there, so I wouldn't have to transport it already decorated. That was GREAT, but then I had to pack up all the icing ingredients, and make sure I had them all, plus my kitchen utensils I had to have, etc. Billy has a great kitchen, but I needed a few familiar pieces to work with. I decided to use my Depression Glass for the service too, so all that had to be taken out and packed up for transport. I also used the Columbia plate for the cake, since I bought it at the flea market when I went with Miss Kat and dana. Now it has another memory of them for me. :)

After stops for wrapping for the present, for a card, for extra butter I forgot, and to pick up lunch, I got to their house and set up.

First, I made the cherry butter cream for between the layers. A traditional butter cream, flavored with cherry juice and Kirschwasser (a German cherry brandy). I adapted the recipe from a Black Forest Cake recipe. After painting the cake layers with a mixture of butter, a bit of Kirschwasser, and powdered sugar, I spread on the cherry butter cream, which I topped with sliced tinned black cherries.

Then it was time to make the outer icing. My charge was to make a "light, whipped" icing for the top layer, but it was supposed to be coconut as well. The problem is that most light whipped icings don't have tons of holding power, unless they are full of shortening. My idea was to combine Cool Whip and marshmallow cream to get what I wanted. I had eaten cupcakes with marshmallow cream on them before and they were great. It would have the lightness of whipped cream (plus Cool Whip doesn't deflate), plus the hold of the marshmallow. In theory, it sounded great. The problem was, I tried adding some powdered sugar to the mix, to stiffen it up to hold the coconut. As soon as the sugar went in, the whole thing turned to liquid. The sugar pulled the water out of the Cool Whip (which is just sugar, air, oil, and water, suspended in a petroleum wax emulsifier). I had a marshmallow puddle that wouldn't have stayed on the cake by itself, much less hold coconut. Adding more sugar just made it sweeter. Adding cornstarch had no effect.

So I just had to start all over again. I dumped the marshmallow drool into a container, stuck it in the freezer (I already know what I’m going to do with it for the campout), cleaned the mixer, and started all over again. I just made a butter cream icing, and whipped in the leftover marshmallow cream to try to lighten it up, and then mixed in the coconut. It wasn’t really all that light – I was upset because the results weren’t what I wanted. But it did make an icing that would cover the cake without running off.

The cake was good. I think it would have been better if the cherries hadn’t been so sweet. In retrospect, I would have used cherry pie filling (gussied up) in between the layers, but I was trying to use the best, and the Black Forest Cake recipe specifically called for Bing Cherries. I would also have done an easier (but really bad for you) lard-based icing for the outside, which would have whipped up to be closer to what they wanted. But once again, I was trying to do something better. For the first time making something like that though, and pretty much flying by the seat of my pants, it was pretty good.

Russ and Billy, in addition to hosting, donated lovely decorations of balloons, and a banner to go over the table. When Nicole got there with the other decorations, the table looked really good, I have to say.

dana was totally surprised, you could tell. She was stunned to silence when she walked in, and just stood and stared.

she seemed to really like the gifts she got, and it did seem that people knew her well enough to get her things she really liked. she gave a very touching little speech after she opened the presents – which told me just how deeply she was moved. dana is generally a person of few words (of course, comparatively, most people seem taciturn around me), and though she has no problems asserting herself if need be, she is not the type of person to make herself the center of attention. The things she said were really sweet, and obviously from the heart.

There was play space available, but only Miss Kat and dana took advantage of it. They really needed the time together, you could tell. The headspace was just radiating off of them when they were together. It was very moving to be near them.

Of course there was much conversation and laughter, and it was a really nice party. I had a great time, and I think the others did as well.

The margaritas were delicious, and well worth the time I spent turning fresh strawberries into margarita mix. I mixed them a bit strong though, and I think that may be why the party broke up kind of early for a LOCK people thing. I was home in bed by 12:30.

Nicole and Lori helped me with the party, and I was really glad for their help – particularly when it came time to clean up and they just jumped in there with Billy. After the week before of work and worry, and then the party itself, I was whooped.