Mom said bad things come in threes. Yesterday was that day.
Courtesy of slope walker 002 via Flickr
I had a doctor’s appointment at 11:15 a.m. I didn’t want to get too involved in anything physical (Yay! No exercising!). I did paperwork until it was time to go. My doctor’s office is in a “campus,” that’s what they call medical buildings now. What it really means is that you have to park far away from the door. They have valet parking but hey, I didn’t exercise and the day was lovely so I parked it myself. I got the best spot close to the entrance. This never happens. I have been near death and had to walk a quarter-mile.
I am just a few minutes early, happy as a clam. The receptionist couldn’t find my appointment. “Oh,” she said, “you are scheduled for 3:15.” How could I do that? I know it was 11:15. The beloved husband took the reminder call and he wrote down ‘appointment on Wednesday.’ He didn’t jot down the time but I am not implying that he was at fault. Back out to my wonderful parking space. Bummer.
The best way to get over my annoyance with myself is to treat myself. I know that’s counterintuitive. I should be punishing myself for not being thorough. I thought about it a bit and decided the punishment would be that I would BAKE a chocolate cake instead of stopping at the bakery.
I am a good baker or at least I was back in the day. Today I threw together my mother’s chocolate cake. Some of you may have the recipe. It has hot coffee in it. It’s simple. You throw everything into the mixer; turn it on; and put it in the cake pan.
I find that occasionally I forget an ingredient if I don’t put them all out at the beginning. Sometimes I forget it anyway. Today the cake was in the oven for 5 minutes when I realize I hadn’t put any oil in it. The recipe takes oil instead of shortening and that’s what makes it moist. Damn! I pulled the cake out of the oven; dumped it back in the mixer; and added the oil. I stirred it; poured it back in the pan; and back in the oven. Will it rise or will it fall?
It worked. It looked good. It was high. I let it stand for 5 minutes in the pan and then dumped it out…..in pieces. It was in a high Bundt pan and it must have stuck somewhere because half of the cake stayed in the pan. I carefully took the rest out and mended it with icing. Yum! No one will know and really, does anyone care? It’s a scrumptous scrambled chocolate cake!
My wonderful parking spot was open when I went back to the doctor and I believe all the bad things are done for the day. Bad things come in threes. So….wrong appointment time; forgot the oil in the cake; and scrambled it! I am good to go.
Views and Mews by Coffee Kat 
Over the weekend, Gene made chili so I volunteered to bake cornbread from scratch to go with the chili. He asked why I didn’t just save myself the trouble of baking and go buy cornbread at the farmer’s market, or at least use a mix. But I insisted that homemade would be better. Claire wanted to help. That resulted in flour and cornmeal all over her, me, the counter, and the floor. Then she wanted to “hatch” (crack) the eggs. She did good with the first one–only a few pieces of shell for me to fish out. The second one missed the bowl and egg went all over the floor. I had to clean that up with one hand while holding the baby back with the other so she couldn’t get her hands in it. I finally got everything mixed together and got the pan in the oven. When it was done, the directions said to turn it out onto a rack to cool. I flipped the pan over, and when I pulled it off, there was a giant hole in the middle of the cornbread, and a big puddle of mostly uncooked batter dripping off the cooling rack. Lesson learned. I should have just gone to the farmer’s market in the first place.
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Now that sounds good, scrambled chocolate cake…surely something appropriate for breakfast. I’m in!
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With a dollop of icing or whipped cream and you can’t even tell!
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Kudos on getting half your cake out of the bundt pan on the first try! I have not once been able to manage that. Even from a nonstick pan. I threw that away with a large portion of a cake still inside. I have seen those new silcone pans and would like to give them a try… if I ever bake again.
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I’ve been looking at those silicone pans too. Don’t know anyone who has used them but probably should try them. By the way, the pan was nonstick and I had coated it although emptying it and refilling may have mixed the coating into the cake.
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I use silicone mini-brownie pans to freeze my baby food. They are great! I’m not a big baker (mostly b/c I will eat it all myself) but whenever I need to get new pans, I will definitely go with silicone – items just pop right out since the silicone is flexible!
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I can almost never get a cake out of a Bundt pan in one piece no matter how well I butter and flour the pan. I solve that problem by “pre-slicing” the cake for my guests.
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That is something I would do! Perfect!
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Looks like good things come in threes too. Good parking space, saved the cake, good parking space.
I also went to the doctor yesterday, and I noticed while undressing that my bracelet was gone. When walking back to my car, I see my bracelet lying in the parking lot. Wow, what good luck. Except that it had been run over.
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You are really optimistic! I didn’t look at it like that. Sorry about the bracelet. Hope it was salvageable.
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