A BV Birthday Bash

Tuesday was a special day here in BV: we had no school. Actually the rest of BV had school, just not SVU. It also happened to be Jordan's birthday which worked out very well for celebrating!

We took over the 2nd floor lobby and watched Harry Potter and had pizza.

Jord has some very advanced taste buds and requested white cake with white frosting. (Who has a birthday without chocolate cake? Its not even possible!) Gramzie Nansi has this amazing frosting recipe we all call "Fluffy White" frosting and can actually just eat it from the bowl and not on cake. I was in charge of cake and decided to go bold and make Fluffy White for the occasion.

Anyone who has made fluffy white will know how finicky the recipe is. and my last attempt at making it for Mum's birthday didn't end up so well for me. Gramzie is always in charge of making the fluffy white but then she went to Myanmar for her mission and I had to step up and claim my rightful place as a Hobbs by conquering the frosting. Anyway the last time I made it was a year ago and now I am older and wiser.

On Monday (because it needed to already be ready on Tuesday for the party) I borrowed somebody's kitchen because I live in a kitchen-less dorm. Cake making went swimmingly. Then came the frosting.

We thought she had a hand-held electric mixer but she did not. See an electric mixer is quite imperative for fluffy white because you have to whip the egg whites until they're stiff. So we tested with a blender but blenders don't whip egg whites very well. The girl who's kitchen I was borrowing had to leave for a meeting. So now here I am, in this strange kitchen with some very blended egg whites but none that are whipped.

So I did what any rational person does I consulted Google (Jord is always harassing me for consulting Google too often, then I consulted it to make her cake, thats funny.) Google told me I could easily stiffen the whites by hand using a whisk and a bowl. So I watched some youtube videos to perfect my technique and found myself a whisk and got to work whisking.

15 minutes later my whites were not stiff. I decided maybe the blending had compromised the structural integrity of the white or something. So I washed the bowl and started over.

This time went much better. When you pulled out the whisk the egg white peak could hold its shape and not tip over. So pleased as punch that my frosting was not lost I moved on to step two.

Step two is mixing some other liquid ingredients together and adding them to the whites. All I ended up with was soup. So I thought maybe it just needs some more whisking. So I whisked and I whisked and I whisked all to no avail.

Eventually I was forced to abandon the frosting attempts and  move on. So I got my cake and walked home and possibly cried.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do about frosting the cake. Luckily Sam has a car and was on call for an emergency trip to Wally-World for *ugh* canned white frosting. if I couldn't think of a better solution fast.

THEN I was walking to the institute building (which has a kitchen) for home teaching and I thought "The Institute kitchen will have a hand-held electric mixer" AND they did. So I went and met with my home teachers then I stole the Lord's mixer and took it back to my dorm where I used my popcorn bowl (fully cleaned) and my last eggs and tried for the 3rd time to make this darn frosting.

It worked.

It was not as fluffy as when Mum or Gramzie makes it but it was fluffish and tasted good anyway. I made a batch and half per Mum's instructions so Sam and I grabbed some spoons and ate the rest out of the bowl (which is the way Fluffy white is meant to be eaten). I frosted the cake and washed the mixer and took it back to the church house and all was well.

Lesson learned from frosting making: a whisk does not stand a chance against an electric mixer.

 I forgot to get a picture with the birthday girl until I was already in my pajamas and in bed so I told her we would stage a picture, but I forgot to do that too. So imagine a picture of me and Jordan right here with huge smiles!

I had to wrap the present in copy paper because what college student has wrapping paper on hand? Present wrapping could be my career though. Look at how cute that is! 

The finished product, completely edible frosting.

 Oh I can taste it now!

I love birthdays. They are the best. And so is Jordan so Happy Birthday to her!

-ALC