Day 8

I got a text yesterday from my friend Lauren who's having the surprise party and she was overwhelmed by choices. I offered my assistance if she needed help getting stuff ready for the party. "Do you want to bake a cake?" she asked. I enthusiastically agreed to help.

We baked the cake in my kitchen so her fiancee would not see it. The plan was to make a space looking cake, space being the theme, with 4 layers and fondant stars and planets. I think making the cake have 4 layers is where we went wrong, or right depending on how you look at it. I only have one rack in my oven and we just barely fit all 4 pans. As they took their deformed shape we got to work on the fondant.



Neither of us have ever made this stuff before but we assumed it couldn't be that hard. We made a 1/3 of the recipe because we really didn't need 3 pounds. We added the correct amount of everything but it was still really sticky, it's not supposed to be sticky. We kept adding powdered sugar and then finally just settled on a lump that seemed to be nearly right. It was not until today that I realized 2/3 of a cup is not 1/3 of 2 pounds, pounds being what I did not pay much attention to. Obviously we needed to have added more powdered sugar because the fondant was still sticky and practically melting in our hands as we made shapes.

When the layers had cooled somewhat we started to layer and frost and layer and frost and layer and frost. Upon setting the last layer on the top the first 3 layers stared to slide to the left! I quickly grabbed some bamboo skewers and stabbed the cake is various places to keep it in place. We finished the frosting, oh did I mention it was some shade between brown and black and blue and green, and set it in the fridge to set or perhaps transform into a beautiful creation? Wishful thinking.




Once everything was put away Lauren went home and I was excited to get back to the pillow cases. I cut out 13 hexagons from paper, cut fabric and sewed it over the paper, and started sewing the hexagons together. They looked really great! I sewed about half of the hexagons together before it was time for bed.

I heard from Walker today, he sent an e-mail and we got to chat in g-mail. He had fun in Zanzabar and he's soon heading to Arusha to begin acclimating to the higher elevation before he climbs Mt Kilimanjaro on Saturday. So exciting! If feel better knowing what his plan is for the next few days.



The space party was fun, the birthday boy was quite surprised and perhaps a little disappointed he wasn't going to a fancy restaurant for dinner. The gag gifts were pretty great, I like to think my knitted poo was the best of the bunch. I had just the right amount of fun and went home with about a half hour to sew some more hexagons together! Yippie!