I don’t know if I’m determined or stubborn or just dumb. As stated before, we don’t have an oven. We have a tiny contraption that “grills”, “bakes”, and microwaves (it actually does microwave ok). However, when bummed, inspired, or hungry I get ambitious and want to try and bake. I completely forget my disappointment from the last adventure and eagerly start an inevitably disheartening experience.
You think I would have learned after making crumbly peanut butter cookies, half raw/half burned apple crisp, and a “friendship” cake that I ended up microwaving so that it would finally be cooked in the middle. But then one day I sort of succeeded. The summer heat and the gorgeous lemons at the market inspired me to make a lemon pound cake. Yes, instead of one hour it had to bake for three and half of it was not quite as moist as the other half but the slightly overdone top gave it a cookie-like crunch that was overall appealing. I was inspired.
1) Bagels- why not? I found a basic recipe that only required me to pick up some yeast and I was intrigued by the boiling before baking. The dough was perfect- light and elastic. The boiling was easy enough. The baking screwed me over. The first batch took double the time to bake and then were raw on the underside. The second batch I tried the combination dial of baking and microwaving at the same time. They came out rock hard. The third batch was the best but took 90 minutes to cook. Gearoid came home that day and asked what I did. I showed him my efforts- 8 misshapen raw or rock hard bagels. It wasn’t good.
Before Bagels
Boiling Bagels
After Bagels
2) Cupcakes- Two days later after the bagel debacle I tried cupcakes. I considered it a dry run for Gearoid’s birthday. I had to send in something and cupcakes are traditional birthday fare in the States. Because I already had most of the ingredients I decided on simple vanilla cupcakes with butter cream frosting. I was a little more hopeful because recently I had found individual silicone cupcake pans that I could use in my tiny “oven.” I still had to do two batches but was more optimistic about the outcome. I don’t know where this optimism comes from. When I tested the cupcakes after the additional baking time they were completely done in the middle. When I peeled off the silicone liners, they were raw around the outside. How does something bake and end up done in the middle but raw on the outside? I swallowed my disappointment, baked them longer, covered them with frosting, and then tried to cover up their not quite cupcakeness with some hagelslag (the chocolate sprinkles people eat on bread here).
Undesirable Cupcakes- didn't stop us from eating them though
3) Birthday Cake- I bake for people. On their birthdays, when they have a baby, when they move into a house, because I like them. I bake and it was absurd to me that my failures with this “oven” would prevent me from baking a cake for Gearoid’s birthday. I knew it had to be simple so I wouldn’t waste too much time, ingredients, effort, and heartache. I found a chocolate bundt cake recipe and planned to bake it in my loaf pan because it fit in my “oven” and because all of my other pans are missing in one of the many places I have lived. The loaf pan fits but it is too big to rotate so I had to rotate every 30 minutes. I did this for 2 hours but it was still raw in the middle. However, the top was browning past chocolate color to something darker. I covered it was foil and baked for another hour. After cooling the cake, I flipped it over, hoping the bottom wouldn’t have the same darker tint as on top and only 2/3 of the cake came out of the pan. There was no salvaging it in a way to share with others so it sits in our freezer as frozen crumbles.
Failed Birthday Cake
I leave each experience feeling defeated and at the same time considering alternatives. We plan to eventually invest in a proper oven but now doesn’t seem the time for a big purchase. Gearoid has lost sympathy for my failed attempts and instead of consoling me just makes sure that I clean up my mess and eats the failures hoping he doesn’t acquire salmonella from something that might not be baked completely.
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