The supply and demand of made up drugs / if the internet dared you to jump off a cliff.

[hirez]

Cake, right? How hard could that be?

Answer 1: ow my bloody forearm. Next time I'm using the hand-mixer. To mix my hands so the other forearm gets a taste of it.

Answer 2: topology's a bit wrong, but given it's comparable with similar items that have come from that stove, further experimentation is likely.

For this disturbing display of, um, something-or-other, you can blame nalsa's Idiot's Guide. Although it tangentially makes sense of how two of my great aunts cooked, which was some weird (from the outside, knowing nothing about the process but having looked at the manuals and the telly programmes, which were all about precise amounts) jazz method of throwing stuff together in handfuls and having startling cake come out of the other side.

Comments

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I'm feeling quite smug that the cake recipe I did today didn't involve creaming butter and sugar, which is indeed an arduous task!

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

Not if you use a hand mixer with the power of a small jet engine.

[sarah-mum.livejournal.com]

Not if you get the butter out of the fridge a good hour before you start. Having a proper brown bowl with the flat bit on the side helps enormously too.
Am I odd in finding the butter mashing part rather satisfying?

[hirez.livejournal.com]

We have one of those. Also the Blue Peter style Pyrex ones.

I'd have Cornishware and a Rayburn, but I think that's pushing the whole thing into a Baudrillardian attempt to control the passage of time.

[sarah-mum.livejournal.com]

pushing the whole thing into a Baudrillardian attempt to control the passage of time.
And y'know, we'd never catch you indulging in that sort of business.

Rayburn, not AGA. Yes.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I have a proper bowl. What I don't have is enough work surface to use it on, so I normally end up sitting on the floor with it. Not the ideal position!

[nalsa.livejournal.com]

Or, well, nuke the butter and sugar before you start.

[aeia.livejournal.com]

You could bake me a birthday cake? :)

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Bloody hell. You're taking your life in your hands there.

Sure. I'm generally quite good at resisting challenges, but in this case I accept.

[eljaydaly.livejournal.com]

Cakes are hard! Really hard!

So congratulations! And now... I want cake.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Ta.

Glad to be of service.

[nalsa.livejournal.com]

Photo? & well done: Instructions don't contain enough science, but enough instruction to get by, I reckon.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

The depression in the middle is merely a side-effect of it being placed on top of a container of dark-matter muffins. Yes.

[nalsa.livejournal.com]

Looks ok. Oven might be a bit too warm and it was checked a bit early, and that pie dish is an interesting use of containing materials, but not a bad effort. And when you have a depression like that it is perfectly acceptable to fill it with whipped cream and strawberries and claim that's the point. (Or, "it's a flan that rose too much around the edges" is always a good excuse.)

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

I just used your basic recipe in some muffin cases. Texture perfect, but the tops are a) a bit dry and b) a little withered-loking. I'm assuming the former is becasue I gave them a little to long, and the latter is because I checked too early and too often?

[nalsa.livejournal.com]

Dry because you left them a little too long, but that's ok. Withered is interesting - normally I'd say that's because you left the cases filled for too long before putting them tray in the oven. However, if you have perfect texture and you checked early then it's possible that you have a very good oven, and it was just a bit too hot - the tops may have cooked, the middles not quite, and so the tops sink a little into the uncooked matrix but not enough to make them collapse totally. So, lower oven temp for a similar length of time may be your best first step.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Dr Cake!

My oven dial is generally up to half a GM out, but evidently GM3 is what the dial says it is.

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

Hopefully it tasted good for all your hard work. ;)

Anything is better than box cake.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

some weird jazz method of throwing stuff together in handfuls
I was actually explaining the measure of "a slack handful" to someone the other day. Which, as someone who is completely unculinary, was a bit steep ...