Two idiots and a kitchen

Allie and I, in our sixth grade selves, with one of our first kitchen accomplishments -- buttermilk pancakes made from scratch. I only wish the picture wasn't so blurry.

My best friend Allie and I love to cook together. Over the years, we've baked all kinds of pastries and decorated thousands of cupcakes while enjoying each other's company. Whenever we are bored, we pull out a cookbook and find a recipe that combines the mismatch of ingredients from both our kitchens. Usually, the result is an hour well spent together and a tasty snack to munch on.

This has not always been the case. 

On a past winter day, we decided to create a chocolate cake. It was supposedly delicious and simple, so why not? We got out all the ingredients, and dove into the process. Maybe we were a bit too hasty, but whatever the case, we didn't read the instructions completely -- or in order. The result was a cake that was horrible. Inside it were little unmixed balls of flour, the cake itself was dry and disgusting, and it stubbornly stuck to the pan. Suffice to say, it was a complete mess.

Then we saw the name of the recipe, and we burst out laughing. We still laugh over our apparent stupidity, and our failure led to a hilarious memory and inside joke that lasts to this day. The cake that we had attempted was called idiot-proof chocolate cake. So what does that make us? Geniuses?

To complete this blog post, I again called upon Allie's help to tackle this cake. The result was delicious, but it was not pretty. We followed all of the instructions to the letter, and it turned out quite nicely. The cake came out of the oven and looked perfect. It smelled amazing too. Then we had to take the cake out of the pans. That was a disaster. The cake fell apart as soon as the pans were turned upside down, and we were left quite perplexed because we had greased the pans thoroughly. Maybe the cake just has a tendency to stick no matter how you bake it. The memory of this cake continues -- Allie and I have still have not mastered this one recipe. This idiot-proof recipe.

The cake was scrumptious, even if we had to eat it in bowls. 

I know how to cook, but I'm still learning.

Idiot-proof Chocolate Cake
(by Shelia Raab, from her book Clueless in the Kitchen)

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup boiling water

Note: FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and grease two 9-inch round cake pans. 

2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda. 





3. Add in the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla and beat with an electric mixer for two minutes. Pour in the boiling water and mix.







4. Pour the batter into the pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. 

5. Remove the cakes from the pan and allow to cool. Be EXTRA CAREFUL. Without proper patience this final step could prove disastrous, as evidenced by my own failure. If all else fails, a good smothering in chocolate icing is what any cake, or cake crumble, needs.