I was asked to make a fancy cake for a charity bake-off. The bake-off was scheduled for Monday, October 31st and it was Halloween themed. I'd heard reports over the weekend that Connecticut was going to get an early snow storm and my husband mentioned that there was a possibility of some branches breaking from the weight of snow taking power lines out. "Some" i thought, ok so that means there is going to be one poor schmuck who loses some tree branches. I totally didn't expect the storm to be anything big. Still though, I'd planned to start baking early on Saturday just in case we lost power. The morning ended up being consumed by other important things...trips to Target for diapers, trips to Starbucks for coffee, trips to the grocery store for supplies....my
early baking actually didn't start until 2pm. I was making a huge double batch and it started to snow while I was mixing everything. Starting to worry a bit, I popped the first cake into the oven....then 15minutes later some flickering of the lights.....worry.....25minutes later the power was gone. WORRY. Cake in oven, power gone. In a mad attempt to save the cake, I started searching for friends who had power. Glastonbury, out. Manchester, out. In-laws house, out. It was starting to look like much of the state was without power. Was winter storm Alfred going to cancel the bake-off?!?!
My stress and concern for the cake and bake off was short lived. Almost immediately, we started losing branches and what continued throughout the evening and night into Sunday morning was like nothing I'd ever seen...or heard. Cracking branches every few minutes sounded like shotguns going off. My husband and I decided that it was too unsafe to sleep on the second floor, so the family camped out in the living room. We didn't exactly sleep though, with the constant Craaaaackkkkk!!! Thunk!!! of trees breaking and falling all around us, who could sleep?
My cake concern was gone and my concern soon became
...WHAT are we going to wake up to in the morning. Here it is; this is what we woke up to. Needless to say, the bake off was cancelled. Just under 1 million customers in Connecticut were without power.
 |
| Standing in front of my house looking down the street. |
 |
| Half of this tree landed on my neighbor's fence; the other half took out their porch. |
 |
| These branches used to be pointing up. This is the remainder of our Maple Tree. |
 |
| Branches cracked and hanging down. This is the top of an oak tree. |
 |
| Wires down, everywhere. There is an entire uprooted Oak tree behind this house. |
Well, the bake off was cancelled. Sadly, the committee decided that it was an impossibility to reschedule it. I had 30-40 hours of work already into my cake and I wanted the satisfaction of seeing the final product. That, combined with numerous requests to bring the Great Pumpkin cake into work despite the bake off being cancelled was enough to keep me going. I'm glad I finished it because the end product...WOW. This just might be my best cake ever. Take a look!
Pumpkin cake with maple buttercream. All figures hand crafted from fondant and gumpaste.
