Look ma, a perfect cake!

I've had a long history with making bad cakes. Jokes used to abound in the house about how my mother would have to hunt out the hammer in order to break the cake and how we'd all end up cracking a molar or two while eating it. But I started early I think. I was just 11. So I could possibly be forgiven for thinking that a double boiler simply meant a pan double the size of a regular pan. Or that one cup flour didn't mean I had to pile the cup with flour till it resembled a mini mountain. Also, my father had just bought a microwave. Back then it was an absolute novelty. Which meant that I didn't know we shouldn't leave cake batter in it for 30 minutes at Medium because it felt right.

Anyhow, I was determined to learn how to bake a cake properly and even attended classes (yes!) to learn more about cakes and baking etc. One course that I did in 2003 was pretty good. It was conducted by the Institute of Cake Baking and Cake Art (that's the name I think) and we got a one hour lesson on the science of baking, something that pretty much boggled me considering that I still think that cooking is an art. So I learnt baking and I was finally able to bake proper cakes for the first time in my life, a fact that amazed me as much as it astounded my mother (who had to do most of the cleaning up after my cake adventures when I was small.)

Now, I'm considered something of an expert at home. Ahem. Yes.

See? See??? I told ya!!!

Yes, I made it. Not now though. Umm, a couple of years back and I can make it again if I wanted to. Really.

And I'm being very nice and giving you the recipe as well which I adapted from a book called the McCall Book of Cakes and Pies.

Ingredients for Cake (make 2 of these)

3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup hot milk
3/4 cup maida + 1/4 cup cocoa sifted together with 1 tsp baking powder
vanilla essence

• Break the eggs into a clean bowl and beat them using an electric egg beater until they're foamy and acquire a light lemony colour.
• Add the sugar and continue beating on high for about 5 minutes until the mixture is thick.
• Add essence and slowly fold in flour+cocoa mixture and beat on low for a little while.
• Add the hot milk and mix properly.
• Bake at 200 degrees centigrade for about thirty minutes
• When cake is done, cool and invert on a plate

Icing

Fresh Cream

Sugar

Ice cubes

Beat the fresh cream with sugar over ice cubes until thick. Keep aside.

Decoration

1 tin cherries

grated choclate

Assembling

Moisten each cake with the sweetened sugar syrup present in the cherry tin can. Spread haf the cream over one cake, arrange the cherries and sprinkle grated chocolate over it.

Place the other cake on top. Spread the whipped cream all over the cake, and sides, decorate with cherries and grated chocolate.

I get these huge complexes when I watch shows like Masterchef Australia where they come up with such fabulous looking desserts but I just have to go back and see these pictures and it helps me feel tons better. While I would never survive even one episode of a Masterchef episode, forget winning anything, it's nice to know that for those who don't know any better (like my family and friends), I'm pretty much a master at what I do. I think.