A different weekend- breaking the mould

I generally do not post an update about a weekend spent because they pretty much follow a typical pattern. Half or more than that of Saturday goes about ticking off some mundane checklist related to home stuff. The next half and part of Sunday is spent meeting either set of friends and the remaining part is spent wondering and moping about where the weekend went and dealing with Monday blues. Actually Monday blues hit me even before Sunday ends. It has always been so, whether I was working or not. I am happiest on Friday night, with the merry feeling making a descending curve as the weekend passes flies.

So, what was different was this weekend? For starters, I wasn't looking forward to it at all. Hubby was going to be out of town for both the days. After sulking over the arrangement for a while, I just decided to get through with it for anyway my sulking wouldn't change anything. Hubby left on Friday night and that night was the toughest in terms of putting R to sleep. Although I kept mentioning to him about Hubby's trip in a way of preparing him for the husband's absence, he probably was at unease and just didn't sleep for over an hour of however patiently and painstaking I rocked him. I just collected enough wits to keep myself from screaming in frustration. I myself had a disturbed sleep with R getting up a couple of times in between.

However, things brightened up the next day and also something happened that had never happened before. I baked a cake!!!
R had finished his quota of nap in the morning which meant I had to forego my afternoon siesta. Since I would have nothing better to do, I thought I might as well make use of the eggs that had been lying for a week in the fridge. I had been contemplating baking a cake for quite a while, stacking up the ingredients in piecemeal. It was like preparing for an exam. I had always broached the subject of cooking as one would probably a History or an Economics -- only enough to pass. Baking was like doing a Masters in cooking, so quite out of my league. But having friends who cooked up non-regular dishes with passion and panache had probably somewhere deep down sowed the desire to break this mental block someday. So, with all the necessary ingredients, I scouted the net for a recipe that suited my requirements which is when I realized I lacked the basic equipments like a whisk or egg beater and even a proper microwave cake bowl. But I also knew that if I didn't use this time, it might be long before I again gathered the ingredients and the interest to bake. So, I decided to substitute the deficient with an electric blender and use the cooker to bake.

Thus, with the recipe in hand, I proceeded with the preparation. With the dry ingredients sieved, I started to beat the eggs and the butter but mid-way I was suddenly taken over by a overwhelming feeling of having been caught in a cannot-get-out-without-completing kinda panicky situation. The whisking and beating needed persistence and loads of cool-headedness. R was making a total nuisance by reaching out to every damm thing on the platform and opening all the cabinets and basically getting between my feet and the platform. So, keeping a cool head seemed a distant probability. I decided to use the electric blender I had- not exactly the kind you would use for such things. Nevertheless, it would hasten the process I thought. And viola! it did the job in a jiffy, albeit with a messiness I would have liked to avoid. But as you know, beggars cannot be choosers. So, I counted my blessings and went to the next level of mixing the dry and wet ingredients. From hereon, the process seemed to get simpler and I heaved a sigh of relief. The batter had to be beat thoroughly well. It was exhausting but since the product seemed like it would work, my spirits were high. Phew! it was time for the final part, that of baking and the waiting!

The cake turned out quite OK. It was spongy and soft. The only flaw was I forgot to add vanilla essence, hence there was a hint of the smell of the eggs and also maybe I could have baked it for a little longer- one part of the cake seemed a little raw and also perhaps to get a light crusty layer at the bottom. But other than these, I would say I passed with decent marks :-)

I leave you with an image of my efforts. I took the photo after I cut the cake into pieces. Let me warn you, it's not a very flattering one.

Wishing you all a Happy Friendships Day!!!

15 comments:

  1. Hey, good one!! Congrats :) I'm so glad u got started. Baking can be a little scary but its not that tough. I highly recommend the recipe from www.joyofbaking.com - quite foolproof!

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  2. ooooooo what nice template!!! now will read ur post! ;)

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  3. Aparna: Thanks a lot Aparna!!!
    Will go through the site for recipes..

    Purnima: Thanks!!! err...where did you disappear?

    Chitra: Thankuuuuu...:-)

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  4. seems like you had a tough time baking the cake... nonetheless... you did it with satisfactory results!! Congrats.. :) n belated happy friendship day.. :)

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  5. hey Radhika, no yaar it wasn't so tough. It was just a mental block I had and also I got stuck in between..

    Thanks..:-)

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  6. I feel the exact same way about Fridays and sundays..... even though I am not working right now, yet the blues hit me pretty hard every time! And good job on getting rid of the mental block! Here's to many more cakes :)

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  7. Simran: ah! weekends evoke similar reactions :-)
    And thank you so much! yes hopefully there will be more cakes...:-)

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  8. haaaappy fraandsheep day! and the cake looks delicious... sure it was tasty too!

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  9. Yum - that looks so spongy and soft Uma - feeling a sweet craving now :).

    The biggest tip I can think about baking, that I realized only after many attempts is the pre-heating of the oven. It's better to turn on the oven during your preparation so it has 10-15 mins to pre-heat. If we forget and turn it on just as you're putting the batter in, the result may not be as expected.

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  10. Purnima: Thankuuuuuu
    ya the cake was tasty too...:-)


    Aparna: Go grab a sweet now..:-) will keep your tip in mind though i don't own an OTG..

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  11. hey, congrats - you braved it! The cake does look fluffy ...
    next - a chocolate cake??

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  12. You ate your cake and had it too

    ok sorry PJ :D ...well done I say...!! Looks tasty !!

    Loved it when you wrote that baking a cake is like Masters in cooking....incidentally I did bake a chocolate cake for my masters graduation!! (more like a brownie) with a recipie from an Austrian friend of mine......back in stuttgart :) used a traditional oven though ....turned out pretty good...didnt kill anyone :D ....and I, never baked again (too much work I say :D )not for lazy ppl like me :D

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  13. Uma: Hey thanks a ton!..yes maybe, now that my first attempt was a decent success..:-)

    Arv: hehe..yeah it was not bad at all for the first time..
    you are toh a much better cook than I am..brownie and all, huh? kabhi humko bhi khila yaar...
    am also lazy hence never tried till date!

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  14. They look fluffy and delicious.. How about sending some down here? Vs love cakes! I have been deferring this job for quite some time.. must do it sometime! You give me confidence;)

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  15. Vidya: Hey Vidya, thanks so much for the compliment! I shall send you some surely..
    I always had a mental block towards baking and am glad I broke it. You must try it too..:-)

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