After receiving one of the best birthday cakes from my coworker Emily Walker last month, I knew I had to pull out all the stops to return the favour for her birthday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Movies are a popular topic of conversation in our office and after Emily had the great idea to bake me a cake inspired by one of my favourite movies of last year, Saltburn, I took some inspiration from her idea.
The Iron Claw has also been one of our most talked about movies over the past few months and I had the great idea to try my hand at constructing a wrestling-inspired cake.
As someone who is not usually a baker, it was surprisingly not as difficult as I anticipated.
While I did kind of cheat by using a packet mix cake, my plan to construct an edible wrestling ring that included ropes, posts and a blue floor came together in the end.
Yes, I used a lot of blue food colouring, and yes, we all had slightly blue lips after eating the cake. Thankfully there were no in-person interviews scheduled for that afternoon.
I spent most of my Sunday afternoon in the kitchen baking, I called my mum twice to ask what would probably be considered silly questions (the journo in me knows this) and my housemate could attest to my mumbling and grumbling when it wasn't working the way I wanted it to.
It's not the prettiest cake I've ever seen, but the feedback from the office was positive and it tasted pretty amazing so I'm counting it a success.
While I don't think I'll be making a career change to baking, it was quite a cathartic experience and I think I'll aim to spend more time cooking for fun instead of thinking about it as something I have to do.
Just like when Emily baked my birthday cake, I now have a newfound respect for bakers.
Our office has a few months now until another birthday, but Mardi and Abi are going to keep the birthday cake tradition going.
Ruby Pascoe
Senior Journalist
