Thursday, January 27, 2005

Chocolate Cake

See my title? Perhaps you're wondering what I'm going to write about. Maybe you say, "Hmm... this girl never puts title that directly relate to what she writes...." So what would "Chocolate Cake" be about? Well, you can stop wondering now because I'm going to reveal it to you right now - tada! I'm going to write about..... a chocolate cake! Isn't that surprising?

Hehe.....please bear with me even if you're thinking I'm talking absolute crap....

Anyway, back to my cake. On Saturday, I sort of baked a chocolate cake. Well, not one, but two actually. Because that was how many the batter could make. And I didn't exactly make the batter myself either. Just in case some of you who are going "wow" at my culinary skills. I used that thing out of a box you get in the supermarket, the kind with a nice picture of a deliciously tempting cake on the outside, the kind that you can choose which picture looks most delicious to you. In this case, I picked the picture of one with the most moist looking fudge on top, called "Devil's Food". This tells you that you can actually pick up knowledge from even a box of cake mixture - devils actually eat chocolate cake. And what were we imagining he ate all this time??

So, I poured out the cake mixture into a large bowl. Then I added in the ingredients you had to put, like 3 eggs (I only had 2, but it doesn't matter much, I think), then a half cup of oil, 1 and a quarter cup of water, which I substituted the quarter for milk, because it would be more moist that way. I learnt that from somewhere else, I can't remember.

Then, I'm supposed to beat it with a mixer. My mom is surprised that I found a hand mixer, she forgot she won one I don't know which year ago. Anyway, I use the brand new mixer, with a feeling of excitement. I switch on the speed button, the 1st degree. Maybe now you're expecting me to describe a disaster that you think happens next. Well, actually, ...... I wouldn't call it disaster, just that when the mixer started whirring, I noticed that bits of the batter actually flew out of the bowl and stuck to the stuff around, like the rice cooker, and the water flask.

I stopped the machine, then look desperately around, thinking what can I do now. I don't want my first experience of baking a cake to be leaving a trail of mess in the kitchen. I get my sister to hold the mixer for me over the bowl, then I get some newspapers and spread it on the floor, after which I place the bowl in the floor, with enough distance all around. There, problem solved! I couldn't help feeling the tiniest bit pleased.

Anyway, after that I was supposed to beat it at low speed for 2 minutes, then high for 2 minutes. I used the 1st speed, the slowest, for a few minutes. But I didn't exactly dare to put it on higher speed, because I'm sure if I did, the bits of batter would really fly way, way out of my control. So, I beat it longer than the whole 4 minutes. I'm sure the result would be the same, right?

My mom pours the batter for me into two tins. I watch in fascination as the cake finally bakes, watch as it rises, and rises, and now it looks like a mound. Then it starts having some cracks, and cracks. All the time, you can smell the wonderful smell of chocolate cake coming from the oven. So, in the end, I had 2 nice, warm, moist chocolate cakes. Which tasted even better after we put it into the fridge.

Like my chocolate cake story? Maybe you should try making one. It's good experience. Next time, I think I'll start from scratch, the kind where I have to measure the flour, cocoa powder, sugar and everything else. haha..... I wonder how would that cake be like....

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