My First Baking Experience

As a kid I was always excited when mum baked a cake at home. I loved it more than any cake I could get from a bakery. So, we never bought a cake for any of our birthdays, it was always home-made.

As we grew up, time became a luxury and it was easier to spend a few bucks and buy a fancy pastry from the various available shapes, colours and sizes. It was good, no doubt, but I occasionally craved for mum's cake. For the last couple of years, I've been considering baking a cake at home. At one point, the husband even bought the ingredients necessary to bake one but never got around to doing it.

It was his 30th birthday yesterday and I was determined to bake a cake for him. He loves it when I cook and I couldn't think of a better thing for the day. I spoke to the girl-friends at work, researched on the internet and decided that it should be do-able. An hour's worth of work and that's it.

I got all the ingredients ready, put them into bowls and got started. It sounded like all of 5 steps in the recipes... mix, sieve, beat, mix, bake. Reality was nothing like it. Powder the castor sugar (that's what white sugar is called ;P), melt the butter, sieve the all-purpose flour mixture, beat the eggs-butter-sugar mixture... an awful lot of hard work it was. Beating the eggs was the toughest bit, had to get the fluffy, creamy feel. Phew!

I had to make a few 'adjustments' with the ingredients. I mixed baking powder & cooking soda, in place of baking soda. I melted salted & unsalted butter when I ran short of one. Fooled around with the quantities a bit. It was an hour and half before I could even set the microwave to pre-heat! By the time the cake was baking, I was beginning to worry if my improvisations would affect the cake.

40 minutes after I'd put the batter in the microwave, just as the timer beeped, I heard the key turn in the lock. Phew! My cake was ready just in time for the husband. I chased him off to walk Lucky while I got the cake out of the oven for cooling. When they returned, a plain-looking brown chocolate cake was awaiting them. Boy, were they surprised! Boy, were they pleased! Boy, was I thrilled!

We waited for mum to get home before we cut the cake. In the meanwhile, I poured some chocolate sauce over the cake and it just got better. Well, I'm no good with creative designs, so I just poured it all around the cake in a haphazard manner... was good enough for our little party. Yummy!!