This has been one of the most interesting birthday parties I’ve attended. Because instead of crowding around the celebrant with a cake and lighted candles, singing “Happy Birthday”, guests had to make birthday cakes. Yes, cakes as in plural, and they were yummy chocolate ones, too.

Patty Laurel has always been a good friend, and for a time, my neighbor (she lived only two houses away). Her bubbly personality and overall happy demeanor is contagious, and she is one of those people you just love being around. She also happens to be one of the few friends I know who has had interesting, cooking/baking-related birthday parties (last year her party was at a vegetarian restaurant called Pipino, and we had so much fun designing veggie cakes).

Now, I cannot cook or bake for the life of me, but I love eating. Which is why I was more than excited to come to her party when I found out it was at Enderun College (its a school for culinary arts, how can you go wrong!) Still, I had no idea what we were going to do but I knew there was eating involved so I was game.

When I arrived, I was led to a baking classroom and class had already started. One of the chefs was demonstrating the process of making Enderun’s signature cake, which we had to do ourselves after. I have to admit, I found it a little intimidating because it involved a long process. But then again I am used to “just add one egg and a stick of butter” kind of baking, so anything made from scratch is long for me.

Afterward, the class/party was made to form groups of three. I happily hopped on to join my teammates Krissy and Sam who, like me, felt like bona fied pastry chefs upon wearing our aprons and toques.

It was just the thing to get us in the mood to bake. We were so into it! Funny, we kept wanting each step to be perfect, so we were constantly asking questions and comparing our work with the other teams’. All that extra effort was short-lived though, because we ended up doing more gossiping and less baking. This explains why our cake looked the way it did (more about that later on). But first, let me show you the process involved.

We made the cake’s crust with this delicious almond paste. We baked it for a few minutes until it looked like this. It was so good, we devoured the excess in seconds.

Then we put a crunchy cornflake-like chocolate mixture on top of the almond crust.

After, a creamy chocolate mousse went on top. Now, this is where we made a mistake. That chocolate cream is NOT supposed to look like that. We left it on the blender too long, as we were busy chatting up a storm. It looks terrible!

This is our cake beside the other team’s. Look at how smooth and creamy their chocolate looks! Waaaah! Ours looks like Milo-champorado.

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So after we got that done, we had to wait for the cake to freeze. We had some refreshments first while waiting.

Back in the kitchen, I snapped a photo with the celebrant and master baker Michelle Teves.

All done! And our cake doesn’t look any better. Hahaha.

But not all is lost, as we had to cover the mousse with a thick, velvety chocolate topping. YAY!

Now our cake looks so good, you can’t even tell we made a mistake.

Topped with sugared raspberries, our cake looks amazing! (I had a big slice at home and boy, was it good!)

Last group photo.

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It was such a fun baking experience. Its also a great way to celebrate your birthday!  Visit Patty’s blog for more info about it: dapattylaurel.blogspot.com. Happy birthday Patty!!! 😀