I made another cake today. I was fed up with them not rising, so I followed the original recipe. Still not too good. I wonder what went wrong. It did rise a little bit. I haven't cut it yet, I will cut it in an hour or so. I may not come back to let you know if it worked. I am a little tired. I didn't use cornmeal today, won't use it ever again most likely, because it pretty much ensures that my cakes don't rise. On the other hand corn is rising a bit, futures-wise.
...
It worked out fine. Perfect rising, but not as good as when, for my first cake, I used twice as much sugar, which is 300 grams of sugar per 300 grams of flour. But I don't like using so much sugar, so I am totally fine with it rising half as much.
You know when all this cake baking came from, right? At the start of my vacation I went and spent the first three days in my grandma's house, where only the (former) maid is left. She's like a relative to all of us, after over 60 years working there. So I spent 3 days there, and all she did was talking to me about her cooking, which is the best cooking I've ever known. So anyway, after those 3 days there, I felt like giving it a try, at least with the 0.1% of what she can do. And I still couldn't do it, my cake wasn't half as good as hers. But I already knew it from the start. But hey, I can make a cake. That's for sure. As long as I don't try any experiments. And I can even afford to cut down on sugar. But I cannot try other things. Potential causes of a cake not rising: wrong tin, wrong heat, wrong mixing of ingredients, wrong flour, wrong extra ingredients such as a banana shake, wrong... not enough sugar... that's about it. You see, that's why with cakes, you can't really go making experiments and expecting an eatable cake will come out every time.
It's not like having sex, where you can make experiments. Cooking is more like trading, where you can get very hurt by making experiments (a rubber cake will hurt your feelings)... yet more predictable than trading. With trading you could be doing everything right, and still end up with a loss. With cakes, if you do everything right, the cake will always be as expected.
I think my cake-baking experience is over, especially considering I am a vegan, a raw (unprocessed) vegan.
I've baked 6 cakes that I can remember of, or maybe 7. I've had one burned cake, but it was good. I made 3 rubber cakes, due to adding a banana shake to one, instead of sugar - at least I think that was the cause. The other 2 or 3 failed because of adding cornmeal.
My phases were 3:
1) first cake: following the recipe, with these 5 basic ingredients: eggs, sugar, ricotta, flour, milk.
2) having the first cake worked, I dared more, and tried experimenting with adding and removing ingredients. That's where over half of my cakes failed, and having baked about 5 experiment-cakes, 3 failed.
3) I went back to the recipe, and again it worked. Although I did use only 140 grams of sugar instead of 300.
All this experience does have something in common with trading. First, being very careful, you succeed. Then you get cocky and push your luck, and fail. Then you start playing it safe again. Unless you become aware of it, with trading, you keep repeating this cycle over and over again.
With cake-baking, I think it's over, because one thing is to make a cake, which requires hours of work, and another thing is to click your mouse and place a trade. In some way, the hard work required by baking cakes keeps you away from wasting your resources (the ingredients and your time). With trading, since little effort is required to place a trade, this barrier doesn't exist, and you could easily blow your capital away before you realize what is going on in your head.
Quando c'erano i cavalli, non si arrivava mai
Veniva buio presto, e presto era gia' tardi
La notte non finiva mai
Tu chi sei
Tu cosa vuoi
Quella bella mattina si mosse qualcosa, la loro vita cambio'
Era fermo davanti alla vetrina, lei s'innamoro'
Ma adesso tu chi sei
Perche' non parli mai
Cosa vuoi
Quella notte guardarono le stelle, la notte non finiva mai
Si guardavano negli occhi mentre passavano due guerre
Si tenevano la mano
Per non lasciarsi mai
Ma dimmi tu
Chi sei
Con quella faccia bianca e quegli occhioni blu
Che non si chiudono mai
E' piu' di un'ora che mi guardi tu
Chi sei
Io sono il cielo dietro all'angolo
Sono un viaggio che farai
Sono un progetto sono un calcolo
Chiudi gli occhi
T'innamorerai
Ma potrei sdraiarti sotto un albero, fare solo quello che ti va
Giocare con il cuore elettrico accenderti spegnerti accenderti spegnerti accenderti spegnerti accenderti
Se ci fosse davvero un posto cosi' bello, e' chiaro che ci andrei
Partirei adesso, partirei scalzo, partirei in mutande
Anzi m'innamorerei
Ma non ho capito bene tu
Chi sei
Con quella faccia bianca e quegli occhioni blu
Che non si chiudono mai
E invece e' bello chiuderli di notte senza sapere se ti sveglierai
O stando ad occhi aperti confondere la notte andare in giro
Senza sapere dove vai
Invece tu
Non vuoi
Tu cosi bella tu
Non puoi
Staccarti da quel muro e poi venire giu'
Con noi
Che siamo cieli senza angoli
Andiamo dove vogliamo noi
Senza progetti come gli angeli
Liberi
Possiam salire sopra gli alberi
Scendere
Giocare con i cuori elettrici spegnerci accenderci spegnerci accenderci spegnerci accenderci spegnerci accenderci
