Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Necessity is the mother of invention

When I took the plunge and bought a second fridge last year, I was absolutely convinced it would put an end to my storage capacity problems. Between accommodating the ordinary needs of household consumption (albeit a rather greedy household), and those of gearing up for a weekend such as this, fridge space is always at a premium. Fast forward one year later, and I find myself dreaming of a third fridge, seeing as the existing two are now bursting at the seams. But that will remain a fantasy until the day we find ourselves in a larger home. W has wryly observed that every storage solution which crosses my path - be it a new fridge, one more bookcase, an extra tableware cabinet, or yet another shoe rack - has an interesting habit of turning into part of the storage capacity problem itself. Extra storage realty triggers my, erm, acquisition disorder, which in turn ensures I somehow manage to outgrow whatever additional purported solution, thus necessitating yet more storage realty.

But I ramble. My working solution to the fridge space issue is to "process" leftovers as soon as possible when they appear. Calling it processing leftovers makes it all sound far more of a bore than it actually is, because many of my favourite things, quite frankly, were born out of the needs to not toss out perfectly good food and to clear fridge space.

It is not a weekend such as this per se which produces prodigious leftovers, seeing as all the math has been done and I am able to prepare accordingly. It is the testing and re-testing of recipes - which takes place way in advance of any such weekend - that results in leftovers of sizeable volume. Take for instance this lime and lemon curd. Whilst testing recipes, I had originally intended to use it strictly for filling lemon cupcakes. I had a fair bit leftover from preparing a batch without having scaled down the quantities to what was modestly required for filling a dozen or so cupcakes...A whole Kilner jar-full, to be exact. In other words, far more than what could be consumed on morning toast for two before most of it goes to waste.

Fortunately, I also had quite a few spare coconut cake layers and a large tupperware's worth of coconut buttercream lying around (again, leftovers from recipe testing). And so came along the happy accident; I have to confess that this citrus curd-sandwiched variation on the tall coconut layer cake theme is hands-down my favourite one, as the tartness of the filling cuts through the richness of the cake and buttercream.

And because I didn't want to generate yet more leftovers from decorative flourishes whilst processing leftovers, I deliberately kept the finishing fairly spare, although I do feel that sheer simplicity is part of the beauty of a homespun layer cake.
PS: Speaking of citrus curd, Cupcake Workshop Level 2 is back! There will be 6 sessions of this hands-on workshop, held on 8 August 2008 (Friday), 9 August 2008 (Saturday), 10 August 2008 (Sunday), and 22 August 2008 (Friday), 23 August 2008 (Saturday), 24 August 2008 (Sunday) at Shermay's Cooking School. The August schedule has all the details; for inquiries, please call +65 6479 8442 or email shermaycs@yahoo.com.sg

16 Comments:

Blogger Cannelle Et Vanille said...

absolutely beautiful and delicate...

7:52 pm, July 16, 2008  
Blogger RuthWells said...

Gorgeous.

Re: the storage issue, you're fighting physics. Nature abhores a vacuum and all that. At least, that's the excuse I use...

9:43 pm, July 16, 2008  
Blogger Veron said...

this is the most simple yet beautiful cake. I feel sorry for our hubbys. We seem to expand to maximum space no matter what they do. I am ready to buy my third refrigerator actually. Is that the beautiful Georg Jensen bernadotte pitcher I see in the background :).

10:00 pm, July 16, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice cake. And do I spy an Elsa Perretti thumbprint bowl? Based on the stuff I've seen by lurking here, you must have some amazing TDF tableware collection.

10:49 pm, July 16, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sooooooo beautiful, Joycelyn!

1:42 am, July 17, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lovely, I wish I was back in Asia for this.

I'm curious, how do you store your cakes? They look like they're fresh out of the oven! And so lovely and moist!

2:48 am, July 18, 2008  
Blogger Y said...

I know what you mean. When I run out of space, I acquire more space, but having more space makes me want to fill the space, .. it's endless!

9:12 am, July 18, 2008  
Blogger Michelle said...

J - I'm just finding you again (I lost all my links) but I am so happy to see that you're still making beautiful food! I hear you about the 2nd fridge/freezer. I have filled up two myself since I moved to Hawaii only 2 months ago...and I have plans to do oh so much more...ha ha ha

10:52 am, July 18, 2008  
Blogger Mama Mia said...

one can never have enough fridge space... or cake!

8:44 am, July 22, 2008  
Blogger Mikey said...

wise decision! I got my second fridge just strictly for my pastry storage a year back and i've never regretted that! no more fighting over storage space with mom ever since.

Thatcakeboy
Mike

10:08 pm, July 22, 2008  
Blogger cakewardrobe said...

You need a walk in fridge - actually I need one! I live with a muscle man - and we have 15 dozen eggs every 2 weeks, 1 case (24 pack) of Vitamin water, 1 case of water, and 2 cases (48) yogurt all all times in my fridge. So that pretty much knocks out all my baked good - which means I have to eat them right away. I feel like a ballooon!

2:20 am, July 23, 2008  
Blogger abigail @ Paper and Cake said...

what a gorgeous cake! and make all of leftovers no less... who got to eat it? yum...

3:59 am, July 27, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i die i die when i re-discover your blog. my bowl o' popcorn and whisky on the rocks are looking pretty sad....

I hope you don't find my poor little tarts, crumbles and pies...

thank you...and sorry for hating you every time i see one of these beautiful gateaux!

Jacqueline

3:49 pm, July 29, 2008  
Blogger Valentina said...

Oh, how do you turn out such wonderful cakes? marvellous.

7:50 am, July 31, 2008  
Blogger Ayudewi said...

hi..this is my 1st visit to your blog...very beautiful blog! great photos!

6:15 pm, August 16, 2008  
Blogger Elizabeth said...

Wow, this cake looks incredible. So glad to have found your beautiful blog.

10:45 am, August 18, 2008  

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