This cake symbolizes everything that is infuriating about India. I have not done lots of baking here but Zach wanted a german chocolate cake for his sixteenth birthday and I was happy to oblige. Let me share what it took to get this disaster to the table. First, I go to the store to find a cake mix several days before his birthday because you never know what's going to be available on the shelf. Of course, no german chocolate, so I settle for chocolate. It's the icing that makes it german chocolate anyway, right? The day before his birthday I go to buy pecans-no pecans, so I get walnuts. Evaporated milk??? What's that??? "Ma'am, do you mean condensed milk, boxed milk, powdered milk, coconut milk?" "No" I say, "it comes in a can. It's for baking and cooking." "Okay, ma'am, I will check with salesman this week." "No, I need it today. Thanks anyway." So I go home, determined to make this cake work somehow. I sense there's trouble when the directions for the cake mix are in arabic with a small English translation at the bottom of the box. It calls for 1 and 1/5 cup of water. Have you ever used this measurement in your life??? As the cake bakes up into two grotesque mounds of large lumps, I'm beginning to worry. After the cakes comes out of oven and begins to cool, I decide to go online to find a substitute for evaporated milk. I go fire up the computer, wait 5 minutes for it to boot up, type in "substitutes for evaporated milk" and BLIP--the electricity goes out and shuts off the computer. I take a deep breath and make an executive decision. Isn't evaporated milk just MILK? I'm going with that. Later I turn the cakes out of the pans and I've never had them fall into so many different pieces on the plate! I lose it. I'm slinging pans into the dishwasher and Farid wanders in and asks, "What happened?" My response? INDIA HAPPENED!!!
Afterword: the cake tasted much better than it looked and Farid, the kids and their friends graciously ate the cake :)
No comments:
Post a Comment