Birthday cakes

Somebody once said to me that sometimes cooking is about what everyone else is happy to eat, not what the chef is happy to serve for the day.

Baking birthday cakes falls into that "sometimes".

Flipping through the recipe books in search of the right birthday cake, I took into consideration the ingredients I had available to me as a result of this winter.  I also thought about the final destination - the palates that would end up tasting this cake.  I suspect Matt Preston would have described them as "conventional, conservative Western palates".  Unfortunately there are some things that I still cannot quite grasp, like making creams, marzipan moulding and piping skills. 

No upside-down pear and almond cake then, nor the yoghurt citrus cake served with cherry syrup.  There was no point trying to complicate things like victoria cakes or well-iced, fancy-shaped cakes (i.e. the ones that I saw at the last three birthday parties I was invited to - there is no way I am going to attempt making a cake that looks like a Japanese cherry blossom garden or a lady in a martini glass).  I only have a little domestic kitchen, not the commercial fridge or kitchen that Masterchef devotees were snapping up.

I went back to the suggestions that everybody had put to me.  Chocolate, they all said, you cannot go wrong with chocolate.

Dear old chocolate.  Dear faithful chocolate and cocoa, with good old fashioned vanilla extract and butter.  Dear old faithful, almost boring for this cook, products of the cocoa bean.

Back to the books then.  Just five to go through then to find the right chocolate-themed birthday cake.  Should tempering be involved?  Should we use Lindt dark chocolate or couverture?  Hazelnut or almond meal?...