Birthday Cake!!!
Yay guys!! You have no idea how much I have been ITCHING to make this cake. Week 2 at uni has been extremely uneventful, and I hate to say it, but I am desperate for the return of impending deadlines and somewhat moderate (dare I say high) stress levels so that I might regain purpose in my life once again. And because I have had basically nothing to do, I have been restraining from baking this until the last possible second so that the cake is baked and made fresh, not days ahead. I ended up compromising by allowing myself to make the jam and shell the pistachios on Wednesday. This simmered away on the stove with sugar until the raspberries had reduced and thickened. I was waiting, as per the instructions, for the jam to part like the Red Sea, but after some time, I decided this could be helped along by the addition of a cornflour slurry to assist as a thickening agent - especially because I know jam setting sugar exists and I was using caster sugar only. I spent some time p...