I went scampering into the kitchen and blithely started weighing out ingredients into a saucepan. Then I realised why some people shouldn't be trusted with either recipes or web space to style themselves as any sort of decent cook at all. I hadn't read the recipe properly and so hadn't realised that it needed chocolate as well as cocoa. And the only chocolate we had was milk which I was worried wouldn't impart the same velvety dark goopy goodness. I added a few tablespoons of cocoa powder and an extra plop of butter to make up for the missing fat in the chocolate and hoped for the best. Then I nearly forgot the caster sugar but luckily remembered just before putting the pan on the ring. I had to laugh as I did it, as the other (equally sumptuous-looking) chocolate cake I had been reading about that evening was Johanna's mapley wattleseed one, where she almost forgot the chocolate chips. I must have imbibed a little of the spirit of both cakes :) I wasn't really sure if my bastardized batter was the right consistency but it tasted ok, so I put it in a heart-shaped tin to make up for the general ineptitude of the baking, and put it in the oven for a nice dessert after dinner. Holler's cake looked perfectly cooked in her picture. Mine decided to play that 'I'm cooked - ha ha, no I'm not, give me MORE oven time' game. I cracked first by which time it was 10 pm and no one really fancied dessert. I swear the cake laughed. Today I put it back in the oven for a while, and eventually we just ate it out of the tin with spoons after a dinner of Veganomicon chickpea burgers and a greens and bulgar pilaf. Not the whole thing, obviously. That would be as crazy as making a cake on a complete whim without having the vital ingredients. It was nice. Luckily.
You may notice that this post is illustrated by an actual bona fide photograph rather than the threatened drawing. Eco Sis has come to the rescue and lent me their old digital camera which I have almost learnt how to use. :) Hmmm, I spy a get-out clause here. Yes, the cake was wonderful in every way and it's just my photography which is dodgy...
I'm not even going to post what I put into my cake. Just go over to Holler's blog and see what it was supposed to be.
7 comments:
But at least you have a great tin! ;)
Ha ha - you are absolutely right!
Thanks for stopping by, glad you liked the choc cake! And yes it does play games sometimes! I have accidentally put wrong ingredients in a few times and normally survives quite well, though as a word of warning 85% cocoa choc doesn't work! I had to add hot chocolate powder to a recipe last week as forgot to buy any cocoa, oops!
Yes, just the sort of thing I would do - in fact I remember putting a cake in the tin without sugar once and remembering as I was about to put it in the oven - I scrapped it out and stirred in the sugar - it was amazing the difference it made to the consistency - glad you have a camera of sorts to use - esp with such a cool cake tin!
Thanks Anne and Johanna - I'm so relieved to hear I'm not the only one that loses focus occasionally!
yay for cake and camera and eco bro :)
I think studying is always a great excuse to have snacks like this one around. I think your cake turned out fabulously. Holler always provides much-needed inspiration. Oh, and I hear you on almost forgetting ingredients...I do that waaaay too much!!
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