Is this burning an eternal flame?

There are so many bad candle/flame puns to make, and limited space/patience to make them in. My shortlist for titles was the bangles or Elton John - I decided The Bangles was a lesser crime against fashion.

To celebrate the first of my friends to visit Canberra in my (shared) honour, Beach Girl and Power Ranger (another Canberra resident) requested the Candle cake. That is, this one:

Which was to be my first attempt at fluffy frosting (Italian meringue, basically). Now, I have to admit, before we properly read the recipe, I could not understand why the Power Ranger's mum had refused her requests for this cake.

I mean, look at the picture - surely it's just a cake baked in a date loaf or other pipe tin? and then covered with plain white icing?

Erm, no. No, it's a sponge roll with jam, covered in Italian meringue and surrounded by a bed of candy. Still though, we ploughed on.

Loads of candy = check.
Jam=check.
Egg whites and sugar=check
Candy thermometer=check

I have never, ever made a successful sponge before. The candle tasted ok, although it was quite dry. The jam made it nicer. Beach Girl was super-fast at rolling it up, while it was still warm:

After we (impatiently) let the rolled sponge cool (there may have been some pizza consumed during this interval), we started the process for icing the cake. While we boiled the syrup away with the candy thermometer (brilliant invention by the way - the little mark on the thermometer that said "soft ball" was so accurate!), I whipped the egg whites til stiff. Unfortunately, this is where the whole plan fell down.

If it wasn't enough that I was ready for a nap even before we put the sponge on, by the time it got to fluffy frosting stage i was ready to drop. However, we powered through - but my lack of motivation was really showcased.

I don't know if it's because my egg whites were too cold, or my syrup added too quickly, or the beaters didn't reach far enough into the bowl or what, but what came out of the bowl after about 45 minutes wasn't "fluffy", even if it was frosting.

Nevertheless, we kept going and just let the icing drip dramatically and wax-like down the upright jam roll. It didn't end up looking too different from the picture:

Although we should have put the seam at the back. You will also notice our distinct lack of live flame. This was pure laziness - it was far too fucking freezing to go out to the shops for candles so Beach Girl and Power Ranger had a flame-off - who could design the best candy flame?

In the end and because Power Ranger was busy with Robin Hood, Beach's flame (right, above) won, and we used that in place of a real fire.

Result?

E for Effort
F for Fail!

Difficulty rating: 8.5-9/10
Time taken: The course of an evening from 6pm onwards
Artistic merit: 4.5
Overall score: 4.5 for appearance and taste, 8.5 for difficulty.

Next cake is something else hard i think, Beach Girl is requesting another cake in October!

Stay tuned for the Julia Gillard bake-off - Betty, you ready???

xx Martha