A nine inch two layer chocolate cake for a one o'clock party in Hulhumalé, ordered for delivery at noon, which is the single worst hour to move a cake in this country.
We changed two things. The filling went from whipped cream to a chocolate ganache, because whipped cream in a car at midday is a filling that has started to move before it arrives and there is nothing to be done about it. And the cake was chilled hard overnight rather than to serving temperature, on the understanding that it would sit out for half an hour at the other end.
It went in a box on a flat surface with the air conditioning on the floor rather than aimed at the box, which is a detail people get wrong: cold air blown straight at ganache dulls the finish.
Delivered at ten to twelve, out of the box by one, and photographed by the family looking exactly like the photograph they had sent us. The whipped cream version would not have.
