L had written out the recipe for me along with a few tips and warnings. She said it was "easy" with a few quirks because of the high sugar content. The good news is that I managed to avoid all the anticipated difficulties for this particular recipe--thanks L for the warnings! The not so good news is that I managed to develop some new difficulties. The main one being that the cake rose over the sides of the cake pan. I caught this problem early and popped a lamington tray in the bottom of the oven to catch the drips. As time went on the drips turned into blobs--to be honest they closely resembled very dark cow pats. I still hoped to redeem the cake. It was not to be. When I went to turn it out, the sides remained stubbornly attached to the cake tin, despite my attempts to loosen the edges with a knife. The bottom of the cake came out ok.
I don't give up easily. After some phone consultation with L, I mixed up a large quantity of butter cream icing and tried to cut and paste the odd shaped cake pieces into some sort of regular shape. What can I say . . . I'm not very experienced with icing. I did stick the cake pieces together, but the result was still quite bumpy and every now and then a blob of cake would succumb to the forces of gravity--what with the weight of all that icing--and split off to land back on the plate. After the second chocolate landslide, I decided to call it a day. I was out of time. Another phone consultation assured me that there are some lovely ice-cream cakes in the freezer section at the local shops.
I quickly cleaned up the various wrecks of chocolate and stashed them in the fridge. Off to pick up uncle R and explain the situation while we drove to the shops. Then to S's house to present her with a pretty pink icecream cake with muti-coloured sprinkles on top. She loved it.
I took this photo of the chocolate remnants this morning. It's out of focus. I think that's appropriate! I've googled "chocolate trifle" and added custard and cherries in syrup to my shopping list. I already have dark chocolate and cream for the icing that was supposed to go on this cake. There's a delicious choc-cherry trifle somewhere in my future. And I had chocolate crumbs with my coffee for breakfast. When it comes to chocolate, there's always some good news.
I love the name: "Final Finish". It has a tone of assurance about it! I need that. You can see the patched wall in the background. This morning I'm trying to convince myself that it's safe to have another go at installing that cupboard. I have to confess that patching my wall was easier than patching my confidence. I'm going to carefully map out the territory lurking behind the plaster before I even think about picking up my power drill. Wish me luck.
My neighbour came and opened a window in my wall so we could inspect the damage. You can see a neat hole in the timber stud and the pipes passing through that same stud. In fact there are two neat holes. The slightly lower one being from the previous set of shelves in that same location. I guess I was lucky that time.
Let's put it this way, my enthusiasm was quickly hosed down! I drilled through a water pipe which was quietly sitting behind the wall where no water pipe should be. The first I knew of it was a fine, strong jet of water in my face from the point in the wall where I'd just pulled out the drill bit. Things moved very quickly from there. W and I rushed outside to turn the water off at the main. I must admit I simultaneously spent a few minutes swearing not too quietly. The next step was a moment of hysterical giggling followed by a call to the plumber whose fridge magnet is there just for moments like this. He can come on Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday afternoon is only two days away, but that feels like a very long time. 
