#baking gods

Dear Baking Gods,

Please forgive that my cinnamon twists have become cinnamon rolls. As we near our final rise of 30 minutes before bake, please see to it that they come out as delicious as intended and baked to perfection.

Well, no, I am lying. It started sooner but I didn't think anything of it at the time. Maybe Saturday? definitely by Monday the thought was there. I was going to make a Black Cake.

Now, a Black Cake is a traditional Romanian pastry and now that I think about it it's a lot like a brownie, although for me those two are quite different.

You see, I don't live in the country anymore, and I had such a craving that it seemed like my fate was decided by outside forces.

And so, Wednesday I started on my delicious pastry, confident in my abilities to finish the job.

It took three eggs, some vanilla extract, some sugar, Nesquik after my heart, some baking powder, milk enough to drown yourself in - that is to say some 500-650 ml - and flour for a pudding consistency, along with the realization that I don't have a whisk, or a cake tray; but it was finally done and in a Pyrex, ready for the oven.

Now, I need to confess: I haven't touched the oven since tenth grade, but I KNOW I KNOW how to make a Black Cake so I didn't read any recipes before this adventure. That was my downfall.

BECAUSE it has to be baked at 150 degrees not 170, not 130, 150. And I forgot that itty bitty, insignificant detail.

And so, when 15 minutes in, the surface of my cake was burning, screaming in agony through the acrid odor for it's God to put it out of it's misery, I had to get it out out the oven, cut the thin surface layer, let the oven cool down a tiny bit, and put it back in.

The result? I now have a delicious Black Cake, who didn't inflate back - because baking powder resembles my hopes: if you open the oven and disturb their process, they immediately deflate and don't have the courage to rise again.

I think today I didn't pray hard enough to the baking Gods. I should have asked for forgiveness along with wisdom, and so they decided to teach me a lesson.

But my craving was sated by a very ugly cake with delicious consistency and an even more delicious vanilla glaze that's cooling right now in my fridge.

Just drunk baked a loaf of banana nutella chocolate chip bread without a recipe - may the baking gods smile upon my bravery

This is intended as a birthday gift to a lovely friend,

Banana: for increased wealth and luck

and BURNED MY BROWNIES.