Master baker I am not and with the thought of the annual Faith Family Easter bake off looming over me I was plotting ideas thick and fast of how I could somehow contract a mystery illness so I didn’t have to face the embarrassment of showcasing some dried out Victoria sponge with a soggy bottom! 🎂
But alas the illness didn’t appear and when Easter Monday arrived… the day of the dreaded bake off! I had nothing to show except an old piece of Bakewell tart lovingly created by Mr Kipling himself! Could I get away with it, I pondered 🤔 A bit of repackaging and an Easter chick here and there they’d never know!!
But alas, even I knew that was lame! I had to come up with something and fast! Wracking my brain for ideas, I looked back to the last time I had successful cooked something… anything! There was the huge Victoria sponge I made for my baby shower… which looked impressive, but I think the guests would agree, it was never going to win any taste competitions!
What would I do?…
Then I remembered…. the classic cornflake cake, my hero! Surely even I could manage that!!
It was now 10.30 on the Monday morning and the party stated at 2.00! Frantically I scoured the internet for a recipe…. yes I actually needed a recipe for cornflake cakes 🙈 and I hopped out to get the ingredients!
The cake baking process as you might expect was pretty straight forward … it’s cornflakes and chocolate! But then I had to be creative about what to do with the cornflakes cake to make it ‘Eastery’! Cornflakes are pretty nest like I thought! I’ll make a nest, adding mini eggs & Easter chicks … Simple!!
NO. NOT. SIMPLE!! It was 10.30 on Easter Monday morning and little did I know but when shops sell out of their allotted stock of Mini Eggs, they don’t restock those little buggers until the following year!! So then began the countywide hunt for Mini Eggs!
‘Start Big’, I thought, that’s bound to be your best option! So off we popped to Asda… then Tesco… then Sainsbury’s … not a mini egg in sight! Till finally Stuart suggested the local Budgens… the closest shop to our house I might add!
‘Don’t be so stupid I said!’ As if tiddly Budgens is going to have Mini Eggs when super Asda has sold out! But in I popped… if only to prove him wrong! And there it was… the last giant Mini Egg Easter Egg sitting on the shelf!! (God I hate it when he’s right!!)
It was totally overpriced but in desperate need I bought the Egg and set out home to make my nest!!
The nest making process worked out better than I though, if I do say so myself. The mixture was a bit crumbly but I got around that by adding more chocolate, and I even added a layer of Nutella in the middle for extra gooeyness which I thought was very Nigellaesque!
So I was pretty happy … until it came to the finishing touches…. little chicks! 🐥 Surely they’d be easy to find on Easter Day Right??
Nope.. wrong again!!!! 🤦🏼♀️ To cut a long story short it finished with Stu banging on the window of the local newsagent (who was closed), asking if he could pinch the chicks out of his window display… and to my amazement the lovely newsagent man agreed!! 👏🏼 😁 Thank-you Mr Orion News!!! Sometimes it’s handy being married to the local Plumber!!
And that was that, Ta Dah!! Easter Cake made!! Not the most technical effort in the land but I was pleased with the results!! I mean, I’ll probably never bake again until next years competition, but at least next year I’ll know I can do it& i’ll be more prepared!!
Cake Recipie (I mean it’s hard core so you might need a pen!)
Ingredients
- 50g butter
- 100g milk or dark chocolate, broken into chunks
- 3 tbsp golden syrup
- 100g cornflakes
So that’s my story, what are your baking nightmares? Have you ever managed to pull anything out of the bag last minute and get away with it?
