Well, she keeps me humble!

As I mentioned I made a spare chocolate torte for the family which I filled with fresh strawberry filling. MIL was over for dinner last night and I thought for SURE she would like this cake! First, there was no frosting (she doesn't like American style frosting - only the custard types which aren't really frosting). Second, she doesn't like the flavor/texture of American cake, but this chocolate cake is sooooo moist and dense and on the way to being a brownie and she MAKES a type of brownie.

Well, she took a bite and then asked what kind of chocolate - I said dark cocoa - and high quality cocoa. Then she takes another bite and says, "I can't eat this". Sigh... the rest of the family is devouring it... when I take it to parties, people go for seconds... for customers I get rave reviews... but my MIL? "I can't eat this." But, at least she's consistent, NOT ONE American cake will she eat. Now, my Croatian cakes? She devours those... I guess I just won't cut her a piece of cake the next time she comes over to save me the frustration...

Oh, and the family LOVED the Sweet 16 cake! Yay! I'm wanting to perfect the bow and want to learn how to make it with thinner loops. I followed the tutorial exactly, but in photos I see other people have learned how to make it thinner and therefore, more convincing as a bow... though I read in one thread I followed that people are using Fixadent to strengthen the bow parts? WHAT???? Using a denture cream to make it harder? I know they probably tell people not to eat the bow, but how did someone get the IDEA to use denture cream to strengthen fondant/gum paste decorations? Ew....

That's another reason I am trying to do this as natural as possible... food items should be FOOD items and a cake, in my humble opinion, should not need a caution sign saying "Please don't eat the "edible" decorations". I'm sorry... I don't get it... if you can't eat it, they why not use a real ribbon bow? Or use other clays and put a spacer on the cake so that it doesn't come into contact with it....Why use sugar if you can't EAT that sugar? Maybe I'm in the minority in that thinking... but it's weird to me! LOL I like to be able to cut into a cake and eat it and if I shouldn't eat it, I want that to be obvious - like a plastic toy is a sure sign I shouldn't eat that decoration! LOL

I'm an opinionated one, aren't I?