When I'm not playing with words, I sometimes like to bake. Up until this weekend, I even thought I was good at it.
My grandma turned 87 yesterday, and her favorite cake is angel food, so it's a tradition that I bake her one every year. We pretend it's a surprise, but I'm sure by now she knows it's coming.
This year I forgot to bake it until about an hour before we had to leave for a comedy show (
Michael Jr.) the night before. I didn't want to bake it when I came home (I value sleep), so I rushed it.
Since we were in such a hurry, Mom helped me bake it. We put the egg whites and beginning ingredients in the mixer and turned it on high to form the "stiff peaks". We have one of those lovely mixers that stands on its own, so we both walked away as it worked its magic.
A minute or two later, the mixer walked its way right off the counter!
It wasn't (very) funny at the time.
After cleaning ourselves, the floor, and the mixer, we started over. This time we held onto the mixer, and there were no more batter-inclusive accidents. Yay!
Around the time the cake was coming out of the oven, I started to smell something burning. The cake had risen so high it was touching the upper burner. The top was black (and even glowing a little!); the bottom was wiggly.
I took it out and removed the top shelf, then put the cake back in and hoped for the best. When the timer beeped again, the cake looked done. The top looked bad, but the rest seemed salvageable. I tipped it upside down on a bottle.
It wasn't done. Gooey hunks of half-cooked batter spilled onto the counter. Mom and I gathered it together the best we could and returned it to the oven.
We had to leave soon after, so we left the oven on until the last minute, then turned it off and left the cake inside.
Here's the end result:
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| Happy Birthday, Grandma! I hope you enjoy your sticky blob! |
It was inedible, in the end, so we made a new cake the next day:
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| This looks much more like a cake. |
(I had to share that last picture with you because, in spite of this adventure, I'm still a little proud of my baking skills.)
What's the most "fun" you've had in the kitchen?
