Unexpected Hidden Talents - Another Birthday, Another Cake and more

David Meego - Click for blog homepageMarch is here and with it comes my son Rohan's Birthday. His actual Birthday is in the second half of the month, but I have a work trip to the US coming up and will be away for the actual day.  So we decided to have a party before my trip.

So last weekend we had 16 of Rohan's friends over for a disco pool party. Three hours of swimming, dancing, air hockey and pizza.  It was a great success.

By now, you know that I enjoy decorating cakes, but did you know that I also have a hobby as a DJ?

Yes, a real Disc Jockey using vinyl records (at least initially). Since I was about 18, I used to be in charge of providing music for all the parties within my group of friends.  Initially, our equipment was fairly primitive... usually two home stereo Hi-Fi systems with record players or tape decks and we would mix by turning up one volume while turning down the other volume.

Then I starting to get more serious and I purchased a DJ mixing deck and built lights boxes and a Musicolour lighting controller.  For my 21st birthday, my father me bought be a pair of Technics SL-1200 MK2 turntables (the ultimate DJ decks). Over time my record collection grew to over 600 with most being 12" singles of dance music from the 1980's and 1990's. My lighting collection grew to include ultraviolet black lights, strobes and other mood lighting.  Then CDs came around and vinyl became harder to find and eventually only specialist shops have vinyl now.

Many DJ's moved to CDs but in the early days you could not easily beat mix or scratch with CDs, so I stayed with my slowly aging vinyl collection.  Then came the age of digital music and MP3s.  Now with software (Virtual DJ) on my laptop I can beat mix and scratch as well as a heap of other effects for both MP3s and videos.  I can tell you that one laptop is a lot easier to carry around than six 20kg crates of vinyl and two 13kg turntables.  I only do a few parties a year for friends and family now, but with all the sound and lighting equipment.... they are great parties.

So, after that long drawn out introduction.  The cake for Rohan this year ... by his request ... was a turntable complete with chocolate record.

Rohan's 12th Birthday Cake

To have a look at the other cakes Jennifer and I have created over the years, see the post below:

Unexpected Hidden Talents - Decorating Cakes

Enjoy 

David

PS: The recipe for the cakes and icing is also provided.