The Big Bake

Started the day making pancakes. While frying them, I suddenly had the urge to bake a cake. I dont know why. May have something to do with the fact that I suddenly remembered the outfield cakes that I used to bake in campfire embers with oranges and flour.

Anyways, went to Sainsbury and bought myself some cake mix. Thought I would do it the esay way. Bought 2 packets of Greens Chocolate Sponge Mix that only needed an egg and 75ml of water and a packet of cupcake mix, that needed only one egg and 50ml of water as well.

Started on the chocolate cake first. Decided that I would bake the cake for the birthday party of Ying Suan (friend doing her PhD in imperial) tomorrow (or today to be exact). As it was going to be a big thing with 14 people, I decided to mix both mixes together to make a bigger cake. The instructions given was to bake the cake in the oven for 15 mins. However, I did it for 20, and it was still not done. The top was getting crispy and the satay stick stuck into it still came out with chocolate goo. Had to stick it in for another 20 mins, putting it at the bottom of the oven and not in the rack. By the time the 20 mins ended, the top had gone black and the stick still came out soggy. Must have been my fault pouring the cake too deep instead of following the instructions of spreading the mix in 4 of 18 inch sandwhich tins. I flipped the cake out onto a plate to see if I could get away with it, but the thing just looked like an errupting volcano spweing out sticky hot blavk lava. Flipped it back into the tin again and stuffed it back into the oven. To prevent the top from going up in flames, or turining into crude diamonds, I decided to cover the whole tin top with a wet piece of kitchen towel and stuffed it back again for another 20 mins. The cake was finally done after that but when I flipped it over, it was just looking so weird. The crater remained because the cake mix had just spilled out when I was doing all that flipping. It took over 2 hours to do a cake that was supposed to be readt to eat in 45 mins. (or so the packaging says)

To restore ego and morale, I decided to work on the cup cakes. They were so small that there should not be anything that really could go wrong with it if I just simply followed ALL the instructions. Well, NOTHING shoudl go wrong with them, considering that even the thingies to bake them in came in the package. Cut the long story short, they worked to perfection. But then again, cupcakes wont go down too well as a birthday cake, so with an ego restored, I decided to try baking my own cake from scratch. Anyway, the main problem with the chocolate sponge must have been that the mix was poured too thick. I figured that if I can whip up pancakes from scratch instead of replying on the mixes, I'll probably do fine on a cake as well.

Was trying to figure out what sort of cake to make. I was considering coffee cake, but I dint know if I should have added expresso to the mix or should I add nescafe gold blend instant coffee. Had almond essence and pandan essense, but no almond flakes to top off and almond cake and was not confident of making a super spongy pandan cake. In the end, I decided to use maple syrup instead of sugar and call it a Maple Syrup cake. in the end, the folloing went into the final cake.

1) 2 medium economy eggs from Sainsbury
2) Dosh of Cravendale skimmed milk
3) 2 heaped spoons of Flora buttery taste vegetable spread with buttermilk, omega 3 fatty acids and omega 6 fatty acids.
4) ALOT of McDouglas (no sifting required) self raising flour
5) 330g of Rowse Pure canadian Maple Syrup, Premium grade No 1. (I knew it was 330g because I chucked the whole bottle inside)

40 mins and 200 celsius later, my cake was done! I wonder how its going to taste and about the texture, but then, I guess it will just have to wait till later tonight when we cut the cake. Whatever the taste, at least it looks damm good, for a cake made my someone like me..... =)