Update: chocolate cake

I posted yesterday about how disappointed I was in a chocolate cake I made and how I was going to throw it out as soon as I got home.

So I got home and it was sitting on the counter, still in the tin the way I’d left it. And so I decided to cut a slice before I threw it away, just to see how bad it is and to remind myself never to use bad ingredients again.

Mmm, it was delicious! It may have been flat, but it was cooked through and through. The edges were a bit dry, but the middle was nice and warm, and leaving it for a day had made the top yummy and sticky. Sweet! Of course I’m exaggerating a bit since the difference between my expectations and reality was huge, but it really was a good cake. With a nice buttercream frosting it might even edge closer to fantastic. I gave a piece to anyone who would try it and we all agreed it was great.

So the moral of the story: don’t make dumb mistakes in the first place, but don’t knock something till you’ve tried it. The cake is all gone, btw. I might make another one this weekend and this time I’ll be sure to take a picture.

When comfort eating goes wrong

I’m even more depressed today than I was yesterday. In an attempt to cheer myself up and forget about the coming Monday, I decided to make a chocolate cake last night. This is the recipe I chose, Dark Chocolate Cake I. Looks delicious, right? And I had all the ingredients ready, no problem.

Or so I thought… It turns out there was a Judas in my food cupboard. Yes, I’m talking about the baking soda. I’ve had that thing for years, never thought twice about it. Until today. So I measured and mixed everything according to plan and put it in the oven. 30 minutes later, it was cooked alright, but it hadn’t risen an inch! Instead I had this hard, solid, pancake thing skulking at the bottom of the pan, looking up sheepishly at me. I almost took a picture of it, but then I’d have to mosaic it out, it looks so disappointing. I was so pissed off I didn’t even try the cake. I just covered it with a cloth and left it on the counter. It’s probably still there even now. When I get home I’ll throw it out. And how was your weekend?

Lazy Sunday afternoon

I can’t stand how quickly the weekends move! It’s like BLINK and it’s gone! It pisses me off so much I can’t enjoy myself! Saturday and Sunday are the same length as Monday and Tuesday in theory, so why does it take so bloody long to get through the week and then the weekend flies by in a blitz?

Okay, let’s review. Hmm, woke up around 7 on Saturday. Did I eat something? Can’t recall. Surfed the net a bit. Played around on my DS a bit. Tried to start Shining Force Feather but it wouldn’t work because I’m a dirty pirate. Will have to download a fix or buy a real copy. Or neither and just give up. Took a nap from 10ish to 1ish. Puttered around a bit, read the weeklies. Took another nap from 3 to 5:30. Ate an early dinner. Surfed 4chan till 2am, played Hearts and Solitaire till 4am, watched a Southern All Stars Special till 6-ish and then slept. Come to think of it I woke up around 9:30 so I underslept.

Time to hop back in bed! Time’s-a-wasting!

Dear Prudence

Dear Prudence comes out every Thursday morning at slate.com. Both the questions and her answers are very detailed, and afterwards you can jump into The Fray, as Slate calls their forums, to discuss her answers further. The annoying thing is that few of the problems are real problems. Most of them are from people who know what they should be doing and just want an advice columnist to tell them to do it, which Prudie does faithfully. E.g. “I think my husband’s son isn’t his, should I tell him?” Ma’am, you know you shouldn’t, that’s why you’re writing in instead of telling him.

The current column writer has been criticized for a pro-marriage pro-baby stance, as if that’s a bad thing, but since I’m pro those things as well I’m in her corner. I wished the column came out more often, so Slate answered our wishes by creating a live advice chat corner on Mondays. That’s just as interesting and features more questions, albeit more trivial ones.

Pluses: Detailed questions and answers, good advice, archives going back all the way to 1998, forums for more discussion

Minuses: Only comes out once a week (fixed now, but I stopped reading it), a lot of the answers are obvious, Prudie’s bad puns grate on the nerves sometimes, sometimes she’s a little too liberal for my tastes.

Ask Amy

Another agony aunt column I discovered recently. Ask Amy runs in the Chicago Tribune and probably elsewhere as well. At least I hope it does, because it currently can’t be read by users outside the USA. Boo, hiss!

There’s no really much to say about Amy’s advice. Both the questions she gets and the answers she gives are usually quite bland. Yes, her advice is good, but the issues themselves are often so mundane it’s hardly worth the trouble. E.g. “I had a piece of ham on my plate at a party and I asked to take it home. My husband thinks that was rude.” All well and good, but not really rocket science, right? It’s possible her column is aimed more at the 50s-60s crowd than at young ‘uns like us.

Pluses: Comes out every day, three or four problems daily, short and to the point, Amy’s advice is generally sound.

Minuses: Boring and mundane, no comments section (fixed recently), archive doesn’t go back very far.