It ain't what you do ...

Yesterday was baking day at Genie Towers. I made Carol’s chocolate bananana (I do find it difficult deciding where to stop with that word) cake as well as Aussie neighbour’s coca-cola cake. Carol’s recipe appears to have been successful but hasn’t yet been sampled. The Oz experiment was certainly interesting, and I was fascinated at the way the cola fizzed in the pan as it was combined with the butter and cocoa. I had wondered why the destructions for the cola cake called for the cake tin to be lined with foil rather than greaseproof paper until I saw the finished mixture. I suppose, if a pint of various liquids is used in conjunction with very little in the way of solids then an impermeable container is necessary to minimise the exploratory qualities of the batter.

However, despite my following the instructions to the letter, the cake failed. It set, rather than cooked, and came out of the oven denser than it went in. However I optimistically made the icing and poured it over the bulk, causing it to resemble the Quatermass experiment. In fact I may have discovered the secret of black holes – it certainly has an immense gravitational pull, and I fear I may have lost some of my kitchen into its mass, never to be seen again. However, brave souls that we are, we risked clogging up our alimentary canals and each tried a slice………

I have now scraped the (successful!) icing from the vile object and transferred it to Carol’s cake, to be tried this afternoon. The ‘beast’ has been dragged to the dustbin – I pity the poor dustman who tries to shift it. There’s the possibility that it might engulf him.