Snowballs

I might entitle this one, "What a Waste of a Perfectly Lovely Sponge Cake?", or perhaps "The First Mixmaster Experience".

Just before undertaking this recipe I received my eBay purchase of one Sunbeam Mixmaster, which I love. I've wanted a mixmaster for years and with my first pay cheque (actually my second after giving my first as a thank offering at church), I bought my very own. I considered getting one of the swish coloured Kitchenaid ones (RRP$799) but chose to get the more frugal but still effective option.

So I made my first sponge cake, which turned out wonderfully with the use of the new appliance. I do wonder if my arm would've fallen off trying to use handbeaters for this one!

Once it had baked, the idea is to use a scone cutter to cut rounds and roll in icing and then in coconut. So this was where the disaster happened. I spent a good 2 hours trying to fix the icing, which at best became sweet slop and then used shredded coconut (I wasn't going to the shops to get desiccated when it was apparent that my mum would arrive and they wouldn't be ready to serve!). But I did my best.

Mum came and we ate out strange snowballs, which were nothing at all like the picture in the book or in my mind. But we enjoyed them anyway. We ate them with many cups of tea and viewing of Pride and Prejudice, my new BBC DVD given to me for my birthday. It was a lovely way to share such a poor result of a recipe. On the upside, Mum took home the remaining sponge cake to make into a trifle for her and Dad. So I'm delighted to think Dad got some trifle out of it!