a brief departure

I am taking a break from reading today to bake a cake.  I love to bake, I love it almost as much as I love reading.  When I read, I am able to magically transport to wherever and whenever I am reading; I can close my eyes and am suddenly in Victorian England or Colonial America or, yes, even Hogwarts.  I love to curl up in my armchair, blanket on lap and a steaming cup of tea on hand, and I will happily lose myself in a book for hours.  In a way, I love baking for the same reason.  When I bake, I enter a world where I am master and the kitchen is my domain.  I control everything from the amount of sugar and almond extract to the exact consistency to which I will whip my eggs.  And baking, like reading, involves a world of magic.  I melt chocolate, add eggs and flour and somewhere in the oven it turns into a warm, fluffy cake that brings a smile to the face.  This of course is the main reason why I love baking, though.  I love the power baking has to please people, to charm them, to make them feel comfortable and welcome in my home.  A good book has the power to inspire and to motivate, but a good meal can calm and restore; both can bring joy, but in very different ways.  So today I am briefly departing from one love in favor of another.  I have my recipe picked out--a Devil’s Food Cake, I have the best of Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me playing in the background, and I am ready to bake!

Swirls of chocolate and flour, mmmm....

The recipe itself (which can be found at http://nyti.ms/ebvXM0) is pretty easy: sift together dry ingredients and set aside; beat the butter and start slowly adding all the other good things like sugars and melted chocolate.  I found the recipe through a New York Times twitter account that I follow, nytimesdining.  Part of one woman’s apprenticeship with a fabulous baker, the recipe has been simplified and is presented in an easy, conversational manner.  As I read instructions, I felt like I could close my eyes and hear my mom directing me how to make this cake, which was comforting and much more preferable than the annoyingly vague directions many recipes include.  I did have one minor mishap, though.  To save time and pans, I attempted to melt my chocolate in the microwave instead of melting it in the double boiler.  I was distracted, however, by the delightfully sharp wit of my favorite Wait Wait… guest, Roy Blount Jr., and let the chocolate cook in the microwave for too long and didn’t realize it was burning until a rather unpleasant smell met my nose.  At that point I decided it might be best to do as I have always done and melt my chocolate in the double boiler.  It’s messier, but ultimately easier (and makes you sound cooler, at least I think so).  Other than that, though, I was able to sift, mix, and whip up a beautiful batter that I transferred into two tins and placed them in the oven for baking.

A picture of the finished product

As the cake baked, my tiny kitchen was filled with the smell of chocolate and it was amazing!  When I pulled them out of the oven, the cakes were beautiful--they were spongy to touch and just rounded on the tops.  I let the cakes cool for about five minutes and then removed them from their tins.  This is always a tense moment for me and I worry in the moments immediately before and after I flip the pans--will my cake slide out gently? Or will it break and remain halfway in the tin?  Miraculously, though, they plopped right out.  Then I cut the top off of one of the cakes so that the layers would stack nicely.  As I gently slid my serrated knife across the top of the cake, puffs of chocolate steam greeted me warmly.  I stacked the layers and then proceeded to apply way too much frosting (because it looked pretty) and then I took the portion of the cake that I had just removed and crumbled it over the freshly iced cake.  The result was a beautiful (albeit slightly amateurishly iced) cake that I can proudly present as my contribution to the game day festivities tomorrow.  Hopefully it tastes as good as it smells!