However, what you may not know is that black and white is one of the hardest cakes to produce.
You see, black is incredibly hard to work with on its own. It is very soft and sticky due to all the colour required to get it that deep black colour. You need cornflour underneath it to stop it sticking to the bench as you roll, but if you get a speck on the top the black looks terrible and dusty.
Then, you add even more danger by working with white as the second colour. One slip of the black and your white is a mess. You can not cover slip ups, your work must be perfect. No pressure!
I got my opportunity to "scratch" the itch when a lovely Maori lady ordered a 60th birthday cake for her husband, a tribal chief/leader in their community back in NZ. Her instructions were "do what you like but not outrageous or over the top". Black and white and stripes immediately came to mind.
Tribal chiefs need manly bold cakes, nothing soft! Not to mention I got to play with my black and white theme.
I had to be careful. I am a Collingwood supporter, who's traditional colours are black and white, and we are doing very well at the moment, so I could get carried away. But I couldn't just channel a footy team. So I varied the thickness of the stripes and I also thought it would go well with the "all black" or NZ colours, another team I am not as fond of!
All in all, I was quite happy with it and I think it was nicely understated. It was much appreciated by the birthday boy and his wife and is currently facebooking its way around NZ.
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