Day 20 - Charcoal Cake

30 July 2010

I do love the charcoaly profiles on the cake...

This is what happens when you fall asleep on the job! And I was all happy with the "growth" of the cake before I took the 30 minute nap that turned into a 5.5 hour deeeeep unconscious slumber! I was so confident that the cake would work on a first attempt that I didn't make any backups.... Obviously, I didn't realise how tired I was and slept through the kitchen timer. Woke up in shock and horror with all the lights still on in my room, stared at the clock for two seconds trying to register how much time had elapsed and what I was doing before I passed out!! AFFIRMATIVE I WAS BAKING!!! So I bounced out of bed and FLEW downstairs at lightning speed while simultaneously sniffing for signs of a burnt down kitchen...

Colleagues say I should've bought this to work..

To my surprise, there was no smoke, no dramas, just a charcoaled apple cinnamon cake sitting in the oven still baking happily after 6 hours at 180 degrees Celsius...it looked up at me as I examined its edibility... hmmm wonder if the local birds would die if I served this in bite sizes to them? It would definitely be useful for a wood fire, if I had one... 


I was relieved for five point three seconds, then stress and anxiety took over again. NO BACKUP PLAN!!!!! NO EMERGENCY RECIPES!!!!! I can't possibly do another yoghurt cake this month... After frantically flipping through my books I decided on something that would bake under 1 hour and get me to work on time, whole cakes were obviously out. Luckily I had all the ingredients you need to bake practically anything... (seriously, the fridge is stuffed with butter, all sorts of cream, mascarpone & philly cream cheese, dozens of eggs and the pantry is overflowing with the dry ingredients too...no space for real food!). So brownies, muffins and slices topped the list. I felt the pressure to pick a recipe that would work... 

Potentially pretty cross section...

But check out this cake's potential from its cross-section! Yummy layers of chunky cinnamon apples mmmm... I'll definitely be remaking this again, perhaps not at night...

Forgot the magic dusting today! nooooo~

These White Choc and Coconut Raspberry slices seemed alright, it was found under classic slices in the Marie Claire "Kitchen" book... I think these guys over tanned a bit as well while I was whipping up the choc muffins from Dorie's book. Nevertheless, they tasted nice from the burnt sides I sample tasted - reminds me of this snack from Taiwan I use to have all the time as a kid.


Slices wasn't going to be enough for a Friday morning tea! So I slammed together chocolate muffins (can't go wrong with chocolate!) and I spontaneously added apricot jam into the centres just to dress it up a bit, didn't have time to chop nuts! I wasn't sure if the jam would just dissolve into the choc batter, but as it turned out they stayed put as I imagined :)

Apricot filling oozing out a bit - crunchy tops!

So, through this horrific experience, I still managed to trial out two recipes I've never done before! yay~ at this rate I might really be able to make good use of the extensive baking books I've been using only as bedtime reading material :)


And because I was so MEH today, I offered gold coin donations instead of the fixed price. I raised more than I thought with the price decrease and all! ($56.65) Great to see people are still generous and supportive of this campaign! clap clap clap!


Today, my handbag must've weighed more than 5kgs! I counted up all the coins I had accumulated and exchanged it into notes at the Vietnamese restaurant down the street where I get my regular Pho fix every Friday. The owner was so nice welcoming my $170 worth of coins and trusting me with the amount too! I seem to be meeting nice people everywhere I go now :))))))))))


On the note of nice people... Sue and Steph dropped by last night to donate a few cake boxes and bases towards my campaign!! I've been needing larger boxes for cake orders that I'm doing, still need to get to a baking supplies shop one of these weekends.... UNLESS SOMEONE WHO'S READING THIS KNOWS A BAKERY WHERE I CAN BUY BOXES FROM?!


To lighten my day even more, another colleague has offered to bake for me next week! So I'm getting Sunday and Monday night off daily-bake duty! Hopefully that means 8 hour beauty sleeps!!! Looking forward to their creations :)