Huat Ah!

I come from a family of avid mahjong players. I grew up familiar with the racket of mahjong tiles clacking around the house and inherently know all the high (pong!) and low (grunts from a loser) sounds of the game. No family function is ever complete without a few rounds of mahjong and I've had some cousins who were almost born at the table! My mother at 73 is still at the top of her game. But, guess what, I don't play mahjong. The constant drone of mahjong makes me feel numb; every time I hear those tiles, I get bored, very bored.

I may have missed out on the necessary DNA to play mahjong, but I sure can make a mahjong cake. Considering my disinterest in the game, I was quite excited to get a cake request for the 發 ('fa cai'; prosperity) mahjong tile with a rainbow cake inside. It's my first mahjong cake and making it came quite naturally to me - thanks to those years of packing up mahjong tiles for my mum after the game.

I usually only make round rainbow cakes but I made an exception here and baked the six layers one at a time as I only had one rectangular pan. It was simple enough to cover the cake, one layer of white fondant, followed by a green trimming for the back of the tile. Then came the tricky bit which is carving the chinese character 發.

Here goes...

Happy Birthday Freddie

Birthday boy F had his mahjong and ate it too! Let's hope this brings him lots of good luck at the table.

HUAT AH!