cake head.

To make it a special and memorable birthday (though belated 1 day) for Elaine, I decided to call upon some of my classmates yesterday night to bake a cake for her today. One of the reasons is that she had not had a birthday cake since 5, which most of us have taken for granted to be able to have a birthday cake every year. Thus to add to that factor, baking her a cake would somewhat be a better 'compensation' for that 11 years, rather than a pre-made cake or any expensive cake bought.

We managed to keep our small discussions about it during school time unknown to Elaine, Eventually the people who could make it to the baking session were Aqilah, Syahidah, Renee, me and of course Biyu. We then went to wm to purchase ingredients we were lack of for the Strawberry Shortcake.
Headed to Biyu's house to make and bake.
Because we had extra ingredients, we were able to bake 2 of such cakes.

Our first attempt somewhat failed as it didn't turn golden brown due to wrongly estimated temperature.

pic cr: Biyu

The white stuff smeared on top which may seem gooey to you is actually the whipped cream spread over the cake. As Renee said, just make ourselves happy for this tryout.
I tried to follow the recipe as closely as possible. But in this size of container, I think it just couldn't rise much. Because we were supposed to cut it into 3 layers. For this, we barely managed to cut it into half because it was too thin. We then spread the strawberry mix prepared earlier and cut to serve. Tasted satisfactory; still it was an achievement.

The second cake was ready. It turned out much better as the degree was adjusted higher. It rose and turned golden brown. Afraid that cutting it into half would break one half of the cake, Aqilah had her brain juices churning as she suggested poking holes into the cake and pouring the liquid from the strawberry mix onto it, hoping that most will seep through the holes. We then flooded the top of the cake with sliced strawberries. Though the result is not the Strawberry Shortcake, it's one creation by teamwork from all of us and brilliant idea of Aqilah's.

Biyu then called up Elaine, lying that she wants to go to her house to ask her a maths question. Since they were only blocks away from each other, Elaine didn't get too suspicious of anything. Upon reaching her house, we hurriedly added the whipped cream , strawberries and candles and sang her a birthday song as she was at her gate. Everything went smoothly as planned and we got invited in to share the joy.

pic cr: Biyu

A classic surprise birthday party. Minus the party poppers and jussssst 1 day late. :) Once again, Happy Sweet Sixteen Elaine!
Baking you a cake was the least we could do, hope you liked it!
Cheers to everyone's co-operation and hardwork! :D