The blog of photographer Kim Ayres

Hung over

I am hung over. I have a headache from Hades and feel sick, queasy and generally bleargh.

“It’s your own fault,” I hear you cry, “you shouldn’t have drunk so much on your birthday!”

But that’s where you’re wrong – all I had to drink yesterday was one glass of red wine. So there.

This is in fact a food hangover. More specifically, a sugar hangover.

Needless to say there was plenty of food for dinner, and the highlight was my birthday cake.

When I use the word cake, you probably have in your mind something like a sponge cake with filling and topping. This would be misleading.

Imagine a seriously chocolaty chocolate cake that was all filling and no cake

This huge cake was 2½ to 3 inches thick. Its base was chocolate meringue (a homemade meringue mix with good quality cocoa powder), which was topped with a thick layer of mascarpone mixed with icing sugar and vanilla extract. This was topped with a thin layer of rich, dark chocolate ganache (chocolate and cream, basically), another layer of chocolate meringue and finally topped with an extremely thick layer rich, dark chocolate ganache.

This is the kind of cake that you put on 2lbs just by looking at it.

I had a big slice.

I had a second big slice.

Later in the evening, while bloated and sprawled on the sofa, it was suggested that any remaining cake ought to be finished tonight so that we could return to our healthy eating regime tomorrow, without any temptations left sitting in the kitchen. It made perfect sense to me, so I had another large slice.

This morning is clearly payback time.

I find myself yearning for fresh fruit and vegetables.

22 comments

Anonymous said...

hahahaha a cake hangover...lol...that is my kinda hangover...sounds "to die for" mmmmmmm...
you will live.
I would have a hard time looking at a carrot after such a decident dessert.

BStrong said...

Ah yes remember the good ol’ days of being able to handle more than one (beer) slice of cake. Stumbling home from the (tavern) bakery late at night after indulging in the sweets (alcohol) that makes life just a bit more bearable. Yes, I remember those days, but I suppose as you get older your body metabolism slows down and is unable to breakdown the (alcohol)sweets the way it used to.

PEPTO BISMOL

Anonymous said...

Seems like your 40s are set to be an exciting journey if today is an indication ;)

I must say that's something I have never experienced, cake hangover...
(the usual kind, yes..countless of times)

I wonder what you will be up to tomorrow - this will be FUN!

Pendullum said...

That sounded like food porn tome...
I am drooling...
Happy Birthday!
And hope the headache clears before the next party!

avocadoinparadise said...

Well happy bday! I had one a few days ago and also ate too much cake. Then felt really bad for the next few days. I wrote it off to stress but the sugar could have been the cause! What a revelation. :)

Kim Ayres said...

Quinn - It's taken 2 days to recover, but I'm feeling a bit better now

BStrong - I had to look up Pepto Bismol - and there was me thinking that you were offering me some Hebrew blessing or something

Eva - how old are you then? And do you have a blog?

Pendullum - gastro-porn is, I think you'll find, the correct term...

Avocado in Paradise - welcome to my Ramblings!

A lot depend on how desensitized you are to sugar overloads. Before we started our healthy eating regime, I would never have suffered from anything like this, but 18 months of fresh fruit and veg, and I just don't have the same stamina for high-density sugar rushes any more :)

BStrong said...

I guess you were a bit surprised after your search.

Refuah Shleima

Kim Ayres said...

That's more like it :)

Unknown said...

Hope you are feeling better now - that cake sounds wonderful :-)

Kim Ayres said...

I do, and it was :)

BStrong said...

See Kim, my blessing worked.

jotcr2 said...

Sounds like perfectly good sense to me. Have cake, and eat it - lots of it.

Anonymous said...

Glad you're feeling better Kim.

I'm 34 and no I don't have a blog, I'm just the average surfer...

I like your blog and your way of reasoning with life :) I can relate to a lot you write.

Gyrobo said...

Your birthday is an occasion to splurge! On my last birthday, I traveled back in time to splurge as the Romans of antiquity splurged.

Apparently, the modern notion of "splurging" translates poorly into Latin; I spent ten years in servitude to the emperor.

Fortunately the time effects were negated by my own imagination.

Freakazojd said...

Happy birthday! That cake sounds divine!

Anonymous said...

GREAT cake, worth every bite that kept your teeth singing and stomach churning from the sugar high. By the way, as one who is allergic to wheat, that sounds like something for my recipe file--do you have it?

Happy birthday,

The Gal

Kim Ayres said...

BStrong - I'm impressed!

Jo - it's amazing just how logical, rational and persuasive large amounts of sugar can be, isn't it.

Eva - thanks for feeding me a bit of information - it's nice to get to know the people who read my ramblings.

Gyrobo - I can't think of "splurge" without thinking of the splurge guns in Bugsy Malone

Freakazojd - thank you! It was :)

Restaurant Gal - I'll ask my wife when she gets back in. However, don't expect exact measurements (see Bramble Crumble Recipe)

Foot Eater said...

I need a drink after reading that.

Belated happy birthday, Kim.

Stella said...

Can relate to the hangover - I have found that as I have got older my tolerance for alcohol has decreased and I get hangovers far too easily, sigh....

Anonymous said...

Vegetables are the food of the devil.

Belated good wishes for your 40th Kim.

Anonymous said...

Slightly late happy birthday to yourself and Mr Picasso. By now you'll be several days into your 40s so you may be getting a feel for how they're going (apart from discovering that you can't eat cake like you used to) - my 40s are going all right so far - there could be some truth in the old saying after all.

Sandy

Kim Ayres said...

Foot Eater - that would be a fruit smoothie, right?

Stella - when it comes to drink I've always suffered from appalling hangovers, which is THE key reason I never became an alcoholic

Kav - broccoli, perhaps. Yes, the more I think about it, definitely broccoli.

Sandy - but you're still a snip of a lad! I assumed you must be over 18 as your father doesn't seem to object to your pints of alcohol at the folk sessions, but no, surely not...

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