Could you cook a simple cake?

[jack]

In the spirit of scientific enquiry:

I make a cake every month or more often
I make a cake a couple of times a year
I've occasionally made a cake
I learnt when I was younger, but couldn't remember how now
My parents (or similar) taught me.
I was taught at school.
I was supposedly taught at school, but it didn't really help
I said I could, but actually they don't turn out very well
Brown cow
Lemons

(Raw results)

Comments

[hilarityallen.livejournal.com]

I take it the TST logo at the bottom is some cunning thing that allows you to do pollage with a basic account? Do tell...

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

It's a horrible hack :) That is, I don't mind paying LJ to thank them for the utility they provided. But I feel resentful if anyone implies I should pay simply to get a poll script, when I can write one in about half an hour, so I did :)

It has the flaws that it can't tell if you're logged in to livejournal, and that there is no pretty graphical results yet. It has the advantage that the poll is completely customisable (and html form element is ok) and doesn't suffer from lots of arbitrary restrictions like not being able to edit it later.

Anyone else can use it as easily as I can and are free to if they want. Just use the code in your own journal:

<form action="http://semichrome.net/~jack/poll/submit.php" method="post"> <input type=hidden name=pollname value=NAMEOFPOLL>

<input type=checkbox name="TICKYBOXNAME"> TICKY BOX CAPTION
<input type=checkbox name="TICKYBOXNAME"> TICKY BOX CAPTION
<input type=checkbox name="TICKYBOXNAME"> TICKY BOX CAPTION

<input ... >

Change the uppercase text to whatever you want, and the output will be dumped in a text file at http://semichrome.net/~jack/poll/NAMEOFPOLL.txt :)

[cornute.livejournal.com]

My mother makes this Italian Cream Cake that starts with a dozen eggs. I haven't mastered that, but I can certainly manage brownies or a simple chocolate cake and frosting, from scratch.

[mair_in_grenderich]

I am not sure which boxes to tick. At times I run out of pasta, and then I run out of pitta, and then I cook things with flour, and sometimes they start looking/smelling like bread/cake before I add more milk/water, and then I have a short phase of cooking bread/cake. Or perhaps I have some dodgy looking bananas and wonder what to do with them. However, while I might make six cakes in a year, I wouldn't say I do so "every two months" or something. More like three every six months?

[hmmm-tea.livejournal.com]

I don't make nearly as many cakes as I did when I lived in Cambridge and went to poohsoc regularly.

excelsoira taught me how to cook (mainly) while I was in the third year including cakes.

Sometimes I follow a recipe as is or take several recipes pick the bits I like about them a make something combining these.

Sometimes I have an ingredient and I think I'll make a cake out of it, so search for a cake to make. Such as when there were several bottles of open red wine left after poohsoc anniversary dinner and I decided I should bake a cake out of them. Result being Red Wine Cake

Sponges are generally good as you can put almost anything in them as flavour. Not sure if you were there when we made the Banana Curry Cake for poohsoc (Banana and Garum Masala flavoured sponge cake)...

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

Oooh, the Banana Curry Cake sounds absolutely wonderful! I have some Punjabi masala which would work very well, being quite heavy on the cardamom.

Could I have the recipe? Pretty please? :-)

[hmmm-tea.livejournal.com]

Sadly it never got written down.

From memory it was something like:

Make basic sponge mixture add 1 banana (mashed) and spice. Bake mixture as usual.

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

Many thanks! That sounds good, but I think it might be even better done as a sort of tea-loaf thing (you know, like a date and walnut cake), rather than a classic Victoria sponge. Jack will confirm that I am a semi-obsessive Indian cook, but I'm intrigued by the idea of a fusion recipe. I'm going to work on this... :-)

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

Recipes are my friend(s).

[tig-b.livejournal.com]

none of the above.

I taught myself to cook (when I was very young)
and I used to make lots of cakes, and get paid for some of them
but I decided not to buy a cooker/oven when I moved here 5 years ago,
so I don't make them any more but haven't forgotten how to

is that more information than you wanted yet?

[sphyg.livejournal.com]

Does flapjack count as cake? I don't bake much anymore as I'd just eat it. Cake is one of the few things I use a recipe for and don't just make it up.