I like to think that the first sign of trouble was when I found out I was about 20grams short of caster sugar. It's not actually a major problem because (the older generation of) my family thinks most recipes are too sweet anyway. I just added 10 grams of normal sugar (gasps from chefs around the world) and I was good to go.
I thought it was a good time to try out the brand new cake mixer (Mr Evil) that my parents had brought over from M'sia. I was happily taking off the plastic wrapper, putting away polystyrene packaging, assembling things together and just about to plug it in when...wth? Instead of a plug, my cake mixer's main wire ended with stripped brown and blue wires.
I figured that dad must have removed the M'sian plug head so we could attach an Australian plug head for future convenience. Having reattached plug heads sporadically over the past few years, I didn't think it would be too hard to attach yet another one. The problem was finding one. I am sincerely grateful to the person who invented step ladders because they enabled me to reach the "spares" appliance box located at the top of the laundry cupboard. What I wouldn't give to gain three extra inches.
Not that my search was fruitful. At the end of my ransacking expedition, I came to the conclusion that we were out of plugs.
Fine. There was still the hand mixer, which I would have originally used if not for the "convenience" of an actual cake mixer. I plugged it in...and it went crazy. I had absolutely no control over it - I wasn't pressing any buttons - and the motor just kept running. I was still being optimistic that I could use it like this, but the velocity wasn't constant and so bits of butter and sugar kept flying out of the mixing bowl whenever my wayward hand mixer became overexcited. At this point I lost it, wailed something about "This must be a sign, life is unfair, all I wanted to do was make cake, blah blah blah," and then left the war zone to take a long bath.
For me, baking is like playing the piano. It's a leisurely activity during which I can relax, and with baking, I get to eat my cake. That concept flew out of the window today and left me more frazzled than ever.
I decided I still wanted to eat my cake, so I ran down to the local hardware store, wet hair and all, whereupon this physics student made a complete fool of herself by having a ridiculous conversation with the hardware man who obviously knew his stuff.
Hardware man: May I help you?
Me: I need a plug.
Hardware man: A plug?
Me: You know, the thing at the end of electrical appliance wires which connects to the socket. (cue stupid hand motions - I was worried he might confuse my plug with a sink plug, which is something entirely different. And then, to make myself seem more stupid:) It's called a plug right?
Hardware man: Yes, a plug.
As soon as I got my plug, I bailed out of there, trying to pretend I was going for a morning run at 10am. I got home, attached my plug and voila, the world was working right again. My cake mixer was mixing, nothing was flying out, and the neighbour gave me some Macedonian sweets. I finally reached "step 2" of my recipe; the marbling of my cake and placed it in the preheated oven (step 3). A few minutes later, lovely smells were coming from the kitchen oven and soon, I was eating cake. Just how I expected it to happen, only I had meant it to happen a couple of hours earlier.
Now that I'm happy, it's back to studying for my physics trials on Wednesday. I better know my stuff right or face repeating a similar episode of "the thing at the end of electrical appliance wires...".
Cheers!
Free Template Blogger collection template Hot Deals SEO
0 comments:
Post a Comment