Wednesday 25 March 2009

Testing, testing...

You may have noticed that my oven and I do not get on very well. It doesn't like it when I try to my own thing. It refuses to work at the temperature I want it to cook at, and seems to work on it's own time scale. Hence my baking efforts since arriving in Japan have ended up either burned, undercooked, or flat as a pancake, and quite frankly it's embarrassing. I CAN bake, honestly. But here I am, apologising about the state of every offering I put before my guests...

So I've started experimenting. The oven came with a handbook packed with recipes that are pre-programmed into the oven. I have to say, the photos do not really do anything to tempt me into trying them out. But today it was getting near 10 o'clock and I had three hungry boys in the house, so I decided to try out the scone recipe (I made scones my way (actually, Mary Berry's way) a few months ago and they were dreadful - it took 40 minutes for them to cook through, and by that time they were dry as a bone). Half an hour later...



...they turned out perfectly! In fact, they were really light, absolutely scrummy! So I then decided to try out Nigella's Coca Cola cake using the automatic cake setting (using steam). Not so good. Came out rather flat and dense, and had to cook it for an extra 15 minutes. (Still got eaten, though - can't have cake go to waste, now can we?) Grrrrr.

Anyway, I would like to reassure any of you who are unfortunate enough to find yourselves round my place at tea time that I WILL master the use of this oven, eventually, oh yes I will! Mama & Me mums, you will not always have to smile politely and eat around the burnt bits. Really, I can bake:



See?

5 comments:

  1. Oh A... you are so talented darling.. I know you can bake! The scones look amazing, the cake- did you make this? WOW, I must get you some fondant asap so you can ship me a luscious cake... lol

    I like the heart motifs!

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  2. Wow you baked that last cake? That is truly amazing Angela! I've never even considered doing something as complicated as that!

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  3. Scones look great! I've never used the presets on my oven, now I'm tempted!

    And how many nappies and grow suits in that cake- I can't quite see in the picture... ;P

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  4. I m sure you can bake deliious things :) This cake is so nice wish I knew a little bit of your knowledge. I m sure you ll soon master te new oven. It s always tough at the beginning until you get used to it . Good luck. These scones look good.

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  5. That cake looks good and it is excellent indeed! you have mastered baking--lol thank you for your comments on my blog. you are my encourager. I thank God for you! Have a happy day!

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