Sunday, July 29, 2007

Half Baked Recipes

It was that time of the year and so I decided to bake some chocolate cake. I have tried my mom's recipe and then her version 2.0. But there are more to recipes than what just meets the eye. Her recipes don't mention the part where she is sometimes hounded by kids wanting to dip their finger into the batter or lick a little bit of icing; claiming that they are the master tasters...

Well here is version 3.0
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Ingredients:
- Same stuff from the previous version.
- Kids... Lots of them.

Method:
- Visit a lot of kids. It turns out that they are practicing some dance sequences for a performance in the evening. Amuse yourself by admiring their timing in spite of being pretty small. The other kids who are sitting down mimic the actions of the ones who are performing and giggle and laugh at their friends. Some of them who are pretty small decide to have a conversation with you; They shake their heads to the beat and you do the same, while looking at each other, exchanging smiles.
- Visit some more kids. 5 of them.
- One of them hides your keys. She is the smallest from the lot (about 2 years old) but takes pleasure in worrying a boy who is elder to her. She doesn't really want certain toys but takes it in her hand and waves it around and says its hers; cause she knows it belongs to the little boy.
- Take them for a walk to pick up the ingredients mentioned in the previous versions. They promise that they will help you carry stuff. However as soon as you start one of them says she can't walk and wants to be carried and she uses this sad innocent look on her face to get her point across. In the shop they run around and try not to drop things down but manage to drop a little bit here and there. Then one of them claims that he can't carry stuff and just wanted to come for a walk.
- Back at the base you start following the method from the previous versions.
- Then 5 of them want to know whats happening and when you are not looking put their fingers into the batter to taste, while my cousin (mother to 2 of them, aunt to the other 3) tries to yell at them and restore some discipline. They listen... well at least for a couple of minutes, and then they try their luck again.
- You make the icing too but decide to hide it someplace cause otherwise it might not last till the cake gets baked.
- Finally its done and you put it into the oven, and decide to take a nap while they run around, fight, make up, put a pillow on your back and decide to take a nap on you, put your hair and tell you to wake up and give them some cake.
- Chocolate icing is put and the master tasters give their expert opinions. Some of them want to taste a bit more before they can part with their thoughts.


6 comments:

Ree said...

Suggestion...throw them all in a hammock, put on some music, and call me over to taste.
i am sure i do it better anyway.

Alistair D'souza said...

@ reema
ppl feedback was that this one is better than the last... today at office there were like 20+ ppl waiting around me while I was opening the packet...
then I made them wait a little longer... heated it in the microwave to give that hot soft feel and to melt the icing a bit...

it didn't last too long... I took about 2-3 kgs to office... almost got over before I sent out a mail... ended up not sending the mail :-)

felt good :-)

Alistair D'souza said...

@ reema
and about those kids .... its actually nice having them ask all those questions and wanting to help and wanting to dig in :-)

Alistair D'souza said...

and appraisals are just around the corner...
maybe they will make me a cook :-)

Goli said...

hehehe...Alice I missed the Cake...:(... But let us start the cake making workshop for one day... I am sure we are going to make quite a bit of money with that...

Alistair D'souza said...

yup... lets try it out... :-)