I promised to make some cupcakes for a fundraiser a friend is doing for a woman with cancer.I always forget how fickle my ancient oven can be, making baking a bit of a crapshoot.
About eight years ago, while I was broiling something, there was this
LOUD ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
sound and a big FLASH of light.LOUD ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
The top element had, in a sort of reverse welding, come detached from the oven and has been out of commission since.
It scared the hell out of me, at the time.
Rolf was coming around the corner and said he saw my shadow on the wall and then the big flash! It scared him badly too. It was not a good thing to have happen in your kitchen.
Shortly after that, the smaller oven on the left died.
So I am limited to baking in one tiny substandard oven.
It hasn't caused too many problems though... filo dough will not crisp up well, but other than that things are pretty ok.
Pulling the pocket stove out and replacing it would be a whole kitchen remodel, which we don't have the money for, so there you are. We make do.
One of the wacky things I always have to take into account when baking is that the left side of the oven cooks about 25 degrees hotter than the right.
Which means a lot of rotating of pans.
Today I spaced that out and burned 9 devil's food cupcakes.
Maxwell was happy to eat the burned ones, so it worked out ok.
Here I am about half way through the process.WHEW!
These are my signature devil's food, with chocolate frosting (from Joy of cooking) and a basic Génoise Cake that I added orange, lemon and pineapple juice to, the frosting is powdered sugar, mixed with coconut cream, and they are topped with coconut.
The devil's food is topped with sprinkles.
I also made a ginger/applesauce bunt cake, that I cello wrapped and I hope it will get sold whole, because it looks pretty that way. I bought some pastry boxes for transportation.
some have butter cream frosting (the plain ones) some have a glossier icing made with the coconut milk, that is sort of drizzled on (the sprinkled ones) .
Aww, it's too bad the oven doesn't work well. I like the looks of it a lot. Can an appliance repair tech fix it?
ReplyDeleteI would have to find parts, which is really tricky. Hallie found one in Seattle, but it was unclear if the parts would match. People LOVE and collect these pocket stoves, especially in chrome, so they are tough to find replacment parts for.
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