Cakes: An Addition
I forgot to mention this in my previous post, and I did try to rectify it yesterday; but the comp lab was being difficult and refused to let me get into Blogger. Today it's being nicer.
The reason I'm in school at all, actually, is because Serene wanted some Physics tuition, plus she wanted somebody to test her newly-brewed herbal tea on. And apparently, since I both live near school and am better at Physics than she is, I turned out to be a perfect candidate. (The tea was pretty good, even if she did obsess about its being too sweet.)
As it turned out, not much studying got done because she tends to fall asleep in air-conditioned environments, like the library; and she gets distracted by the clothing of everybody nearby. (She admitted as much during lunch.) As a result, the only studying actually done was for half an hour in the library (before she fell asleep) and for an hour or so after lunch (when the canteen was deserted and so nobody was around for her to play Fashion Police with). Still, it's been awhile since I last saw a classmate under non-examination conditions, which don't lend themselves to casual conversation.
Anyway...I meant to say that some time last week--I think it was Friday--my sister and I went to D-Kun's house to bake a cake for Mrs. Gorilla's birthday. I'm no stranger to the making of cakes myself, since I can do a pretty good cheesecake, but the recipe we used that day was a little strange.
For one thing, it was called a carrot cheesecake, but it ended up tasting strongly of cinnamon and apple. For another, it didn't have the crushed-digestive-biscuit base that I'm used to seeing on cheesecakes. And for a third, it didn't melt very quickly in room temperature.
The making of the cake was quite enjoyable, since my sister and D-Kun are practically masters of the art of small talk and kept the conversation flowing. And all the stuff was readily available (thanks to D-Kun's mom for that!) and the tools were shiny and sharp. Or sharp and shiny, whichever sounds better.
I found the preparation of the ingredients quite absorbing, which is odd since I was doing the menial tasks (weighing, chopping, and suchlike). Maybe the novelty of the whole thing was what fascinated me. In any case, I must say that chopping walnuts is quite nice if you're looking for instant results: roasted walnuts are quite fragile and fall apart easily under any good cleaver.
Chopping raisins, on the other hand... bleargh. The things seem to turn into glue upon meeting the knife-edge, and what's worse they don't fall apart. Chop with too little force and the raisins merely get squashed under the edge (and they then stick there, further blunting the thing); too much force and you risk the knife landing on your fingers or empty space. But still, getting through the task (thank God the recipe didn't say "chop finely", or we'd never have finished on time) does give a bit of a sense of satisfaction.
I didn't get involved in the later stages (watching the cake rise, oohing and aahing over the cake, preparing the icing, icing the cake, and oohing and aahing some more), since I was busy devouring Politically Correct Bedtime Stories and several editions of Reader's Digest.
Incidentally, everyone who ate the cake said it tasted wonderful, despite several accidents with the grater that ended with bloodshed and the loss of strips of skin. Still, it was all baked later on; hopefully it didn't cause anybody digestive issues later on. (The blood, I think, was all O+ so it shouldn't have raised any problems.)
The reason I'm in school at all, actually, is because Serene wanted some Physics tuition, plus she wanted somebody to test her newly-brewed herbal tea on. And apparently, since I both live near school and am better at Physics than she is, I turned out to be a perfect candidate. (The tea was pretty good, even if she did obsess about its being too sweet.)
As it turned out, not much studying got done because she tends to fall asleep in air-conditioned environments, like the library; and she gets distracted by the clothing of everybody nearby. (She admitted as much during lunch.) As a result, the only studying actually done was for half an hour in the library (before she fell asleep) and for an hour or so after lunch (when the canteen was deserted and so nobody was around for her to play Fashion Police with). Still, it's been awhile since I last saw a classmate under non-examination conditions, which don't lend themselves to casual conversation.
Anyway...I meant to say that some time last week--I think it was Friday--my sister and I went to D-Kun's house to bake a cake for Mrs. Gorilla's birthday. I'm no stranger to the making of cakes myself, since I can do a pretty good cheesecake, but the recipe we used that day was a little strange.
For one thing, it was called a carrot cheesecake, but it ended up tasting strongly of cinnamon and apple. For another, it didn't have the crushed-digestive-biscuit base that I'm used to seeing on cheesecakes. And for a third, it didn't melt very quickly in room temperature.
The making of the cake was quite enjoyable, since my sister and D-Kun are practically masters of the art of small talk and kept the conversation flowing. And all the stuff was readily available (thanks to D-Kun's mom for that!) and the tools were shiny and sharp. Or sharp and shiny, whichever sounds better.
I found the preparation of the ingredients quite absorbing, which is odd since I was doing the menial tasks (weighing, chopping, and suchlike). Maybe the novelty of the whole thing was what fascinated me. In any case, I must say that chopping walnuts is quite nice if you're looking for instant results: roasted walnuts are quite fragile and fall apart easily under any good cleaver.
Chopping raisins, on the other hand... bleargh. The things seem to turn into glue upon meeting the knife-edge, and what's worse they don't fall apart. Chop with too little force and the raisins merely get squashed under the edge (and they then stick there, further blunting the thing); too much force and you risk the knife landing on your fingers or empty space. But still, getting through the task (thank God the recipe didn't say "chop finely", or we'd never have finished on time) does give a bit of a sense of satisfaction.
I didn't get involved in the later stages (watching the cake rise, oohing and aahing over the cake, preparing the icing, icing the cake, and oohing and aahing some more), since I was busy devouring Politically Correct Bedtime Stories and several editions of Reader's Digest.
Incidentally, everyone who ate the cake said it tasted wonderful, despite several accidents with the grater that ended with bloodshed and the loss of strips of skin. Still, it was all baked later on; hopefully it didn't cause anybody digestive issues later on. (The blood, I think, was all O+ so it shouldn't have raised any problems.)
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