"Why did I agree to this?!" I thought to myself as I looked at the ugly grey lump in the bowl in front of me. It stared back at me contemptuously. I had actually been looking forward to baking for the wife for some time now, thinking since I help sometimes I must have absorbed some knowledge, right? Well, sort of. You see she had provided this Ube cake recipe for me, and I didn’t read it with as much understanding and forethought as I should have. Otherwise I would have known that I was supposed to save the 8 egg whites from the yolks that were now incorporated into my “batter”.
Make the meringue was the next step, and one I had actually been tasked to do before! Confidence was high, only to immediately fall to an all time low as a small drop of egg yolk landed in my 5 pristine, lovingly separated egg whites. Lovingly because this was my BAKER wife’s birthday cake that I, a non-baker, has agreed to make! Isn’t the batter usually the easiest part? I’m positive she picked this particular recipe on purpose.
I proceeded to combine the meringue with the lump of clay-like “batter” from earlier, still confused as to where this was going. As I folded the meringue in as directed, I witnessed a metamorphosis occur! The batter had become fluffy, airy and smooth. It had been 2 and a half hours since I began.
After baking, the rest of the cake came together quite smoothly. I leveled the layers, assembled the cake and even added a little extra Ube jam for good measure. The whipped cream frosting was the easiest part, and in short order it looked like an actual cake. I tasted one of the pieces I had sliced off the layers, and it was like a purple cloud floating across my tastebuds! Didn’t know I was capable of that, must’ve been the meringue...
While I savored that bite, I turned around and slowly surveyed the kitchen. It looked like a bomb went off everywhere but the cake turntable. Guess I should clean up my “happy little accident” before I try to present this cake to the wife!
Author: The Husband