I love to bake cakes.
I’ve made countless cakes for all sorts of celebrations; birthdays, graduations, baby showers, retirement parties, and everything in between.
I learned to make cakes at a young age. I received an easy bake oven for my fifth birthday and I made cakes until I blew the fuse in our kitchen! And then I made some more.
For my 16th birthday, I received my first Kitchen Aid stand mixer, because every serious cake baker needs one!
Cake should be fun, bright, exciting and delicious! As Julia Child said “A party without cake is just a meeting”. I couldn’t agree more.
When I learned that the pressure test would be baking a birthday cake, I felt very confident. I’ve baked thousands of cakes in my lifetime and thought this challenge would be a piece of cake. Ha!
Little did I know the pressure of the MasterChef kitchen would get to me.
It was my birthday.
And on my birthday, I had to bake a birthday cake in the MasterChef kitchen. Do you see the irony of this?
Unfortunately, my cake was raw, uneven and poorly decorated. I was not proud of this and it was the FIRST time in the competition that I felt worried!
I had to leave the MasterChef kitchen. It really was not the way I imagined spending my 26th birthday!!
But we all have bad days, we make mistakes, make raw cakes (maybe that’s just me lol) but after all we are only human.
I came home and baked myself a proper birthday cake and enjoyed it with my best friend, my husband, Hussein.
And then I baked a few more.
I called some local food banks and learned that birthday cakes are a highly requested item. It made me realize just how much I have taken birthday cakes for granted. In my opinion, cakes are an important part of celebrations and some of neighbors do not have access to them.
For this episode, I baked five birthday cakes, each different and unique and took them to the West Seattle Food Bank. It was my way of celebrating MasterChef’s 100 Birthday and of putting this all behind me (It’s been hard keeping this to myself!!).
I want to thank you all for your love and support! I have been so overwhelmed with all the love and encouragement I have received from you all. Each message is read and appreciated! THANK YOU!!!
I may be done with MasterChef, but my food journey is not over! I hope you continue to walk beside me as I bake and create!
The best is yet to come 🙂 <3
Xoxo,
Amanda
