Caaake

[jack]

I made a cake. It wasn't spectacularly successful, but as my first cake ever, I'm quite pleased. Ignorance still beats a steady retreat before me :)

It was very lemony, and quite moist, as I desired to err on the side of :) I think the dough was a bit too liquid. And the microwave-meltable chocolate icing had a tendency to become scorched, it needs more stirring.

But I hope to try again. Thanks to sonicdrift for an easy but general recipe, it's exactly the sort of thing I find most helpful.

Comments

[cornute.livejournal.com]

moist isn't always a bad thing. I made some cream-cheese brownies and found that substituting wheat flour for white had the (unexpected to me) side effect of making them incredibly chewy-- and need 45 minutes more baking at a lower temperature.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

No, I quite liked it, I intended moist. But it definitely oozed more than perfectly ideal; the middle sagged a little, and flumped a bit sideways when you cut away a slice :)

[ex-mair-aw801.livejournal.com]

sounds like you could have happily repackaged it as a tasty trifle.

(mmm... moistness...)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I didn't think of that.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

Grrr, LJ ate my post and won't give it back.

How have you managed to never make a cake before? What were your parents and teachers thinking of? Not teaching a child how to cook basic items is like not teaching a child to swim, or not teaching them how to read.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Well, it never came up. It's not as if you need to eat cake at every meal.

I agree cooking is a really obvious useful thing for schools to teach, together with other basic domestic life skills. (Though I don't know if it turns out like that in schools that do teach cooking (the stereotype in my mind is of people saying "girls had to do cooking and it was useless") :) )

But it wasn't at my school, and at the time I didn't really think about it. I don't think you can blame individual teachers, it wasn't timetabled, and there wasn't a teaching kitchen. They didn't just single me out not to teach cooking to.

And mum... never did. I wouldn't trade -- I'd probably learn how to cook cakes or be organised at the expense of being vegetarian or atheist :)

Do you think everyone *else* you know can reliably cook a cake -- and indeed simple proper meals?

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

Well, it never came up. It's not as if you need to eat cake at every meal.

True, but a victoria sponge is one of the standard things that five year olds help to make, because it's not too complicated!

Do you think everyone *else* you know can reliably cook a cake -- and indeed simple proper meals?

Perhaps not, but I think it's the sort of thing that I'd generally expect someone with sensible parents (like you have) to be able to do. Or to have tried to be able to do, as the case may be (I have had many cake disasters over the years).

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

True, but a victoria sponge is one of the standard things that five year olds help to make, because it's not too complicated!

Apparently so :)

Yes, I would hope people would. But then there's all sorts of things I'd hope people would have been taught, that they just don't seem to be, some of which everyone agrees with me, and some is just me :)

I'd generally expect someone with sensible parents (like you have) to be able to do

Actually, they're like us, good at lots of things, but a bit hit and miss at being good at all the simple, obvious things, especially boring ones :)

FWIW, I made a poll to "scientifically enquire" about it :)

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I don't think any of my schools taught us any cooking. Of course I could have forgotten. Certainly if they did I don't think it was more than a lesson or two's worth of time.

My Mum did teach me a reasonable amount of cooking though as for cakes, I've not made one since leaving home.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

err, and would need to go back to a recipe and wouldn't be able to rely on memory to make one now.

[naath.livejournal.com]

My school taught cooking, but we never did cakes.

[ceb.livejournal.com]

Get thee a copy of 'Fast Cakes' by Mary Berry (aka 'Cakes for Duh-brains').

[cobalt-skye.livejournal.com]

Cake :D :D

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Very.