Hi all...This is my first posting on this website...but I think we all have had some disasters over the years...and here's my biggest one. I'd like to start by saying that I don't bake as my career...but I think I bake well, and do all the baking for special occasions for all my firends and family.

My sister has two sons, and their birthdays are two weeks apart (technically four years and two weeks apart) and she usually has one birthday party for the two of them. I bake each their own birthday cake (since each wants something different). One likes traditional carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, the other likes a chocolate cake with a white chocolate Italian Merengue Butter cream.

I tend to do everything at the last minute...so it is the evening before the party, and I'm about to embark on two cakes both to be frosted and decorated with some elaborate piped decorations. I should also add that I live in the hear of New York City, and unless you are very wealthy, we have notoriously small kitchens. I also am certainly not a "clean as you go" type of guy...so the kitchen is usually a disaster.

Cake #1 went fine. No hitches. I had all the dirty bowls and mess in the sink from cake #1 as I began cake #2. It is now about midnight...perhaps 1 AM. Now since my kitchen is so small, and what little counter space I have was cluttered with stuff, I balanced my scale on the edge of the sink. (you all see where this is going, don't you). I mixed the batter for the chocolate cake in the kitchen aid, and then weighed the bowl to see how much batter I had, so I could obsessively distribute the batter exactly evenly (to the gram) into the two 9" pans. And as you all can presume, the scale, the mixing bowl, and the batter all landed in the sink (which was filled with soapy water). That was the end of the batter, and the end of my scale. I had to go out and look for a 24 hour grocery store (there are none in my immediate vicinity) because I was now out of butter...and as far as my scale goes (digital) it was ruined. So...back to the olden days of measuring cups. I got the butter, started over...and produced a beautiful (if I must say so myself) birthday cake for my nephew (at 5:15 in the morning). AHHHHHHHH! when I told my sister what had happend she said " you are an idiot...you should have gone to a bakery in the morning and bought a cake". But the kids can taste the difference....besides, who needs sleep when there is cake to be eaten?

Welcome to CC. I think we call all say that we have had those 5:30am cakes. LOL Thank you for the story it really did make me smile, and very thankful for my full sized kitchen!!!

LOVE your story and I can sympathize. I live in the good 'ol South, where they have big houses... unless your house was built in the '50's...with a 2x1 1/2 foot piece of counter. Try making 3 special event cakes in that?!?! Love that you made another cake though. You nephew will love you!

Thanks for the welcomes. This kitchen is crazy small...don't even have full size appliances (the range and refrigerator are 24" wide) and there is no dishwasher. Most people I know with kitchens like this don't cook anything let alone bake special occasion cakes. Infact I know someone who stores books in his oven.

Man, I watch house hunters and shows like that, so they show a lot of new york city, and international places. The kitchens are usually so small!

Kudos to you for pulling through for the kids!

I guess others that don't understand our passion for cakes would run off to a bakery or even a box in the wee hours of the morning, but there is just something about seeing that final work of art no matter how many hours, trips to the store, etc that vision requires. I love that sense of accomplishment and seeing the looks in peoples faces when they see and taste the cake. I can't even begin to count how many cakes that weren't quite right that I have thrown out just to start again at midnight when the cake was due at noon. I can say that they all have been worth it!

Welcome to CC Williamus. Gotta love those 5 am cake days. I might have a larger kitchen than you but with 4 little ones running around I am always up until the wee hours making cakes. Even then I have to hide them before they wake up in the morning (my cakes have been known to be missing pieces and apparently we have a ghost since know one ever fesses up ). Thankfully I only back for family so it's not such a big deal except the extra time it takes to redo.

Once again welcome and here's a link that will help you out with acronyms we use here on CC:

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-2926.html

Thanks for all the welcomes! and thanks for the link to the acronyms...I printed them out so I'll have them handy. I sort of live this crazy busy existence, and I don't get a lot of time online...so I am often absent from websites like these for a while...but I look forward to sharing ideas with everyone...and comlaining about my small kitchen...and reporting about scraping cake batter out of the grout in my kitchen floor at 3 AM.

Oh my oh my. Ouch ouch ouch
Uncle William saves the day!!!

Yay!!!!

Welcome to CC! gonna be posting pictures of your creations?

I had flashbacks of my sister's neighbor's kitchen! My sister's kitchen was small...the smallest I'd ever seen(her living room and bedrooms, on the other hand, were ENORMOUS). After I'd been staying with her a few months (after hs graduation...got to go the Big Apple), bickering about the size of her kitchen, she'd had enough and took me across the hall(I'd never been exposed to an apartment building...come to think of it, I'd not been exposed to anything) to her neighbor's. "Hey ___. Are you busy? Would you mind if I show her your kitchen?" We walk in and head toward what looked to me like a little girl play kitchen. She couldn't even open her half-sized oven door all the way without hitting the counter in front of it...the sink was the size of the average sink...on one side only. Four small burners butted up together was the size of the range(and also the width of the oven that it was attached to).

My sister's kitchen then looked quite a bit larger after that visit...at least she did have a full sized oven that opened all the way....

Welcome to CC!! Glad everything turned out ok (you're right sleep is WAY over-rated!)

That being said....WHERE ARE THE PICTURES!!!!!!! LOL!

Gail

I'm a bit of a technophobe...and don't always photograph my cakes. I don't have pics of the cakes in the story...but will post some of other cakes eventually. Heading out...have a good weekend all!