crisis in the honeypot

Well folks it's already dark as I write this and not yet 5 o'clock.

I do have to say I like the long nights though, although less inclined to go out, my thoughts turn to knitting and curling up in front of a fire.

Today's things are a little behind and I have to go out now to fetch my daughter, but I have a cake in the oven.  This slight timekeeping problem started earlier, you see it started when the bread machine went beep continuously and instead of having a countdown start on the timer all that was displayed was EEE.  I turned it off and back on resetting to a dough setting, no luck, just the same problem. After a scratch of the head I tried another setting and then another. Nothing worked, so I had a bread machine full of unmixed ingredients and my beloved bread maker not playing ball.  Ok not to be deterred too much I gathered all the ingredients back out and into another bowl and began kneading by hand.  And now I have a lump of dough sat in the centre of the counter in the middle of a rise, instead of out the way in the machine, but at least we will still have fresh bread tonight (and growing nicely I could add.)

But that did make me a little later starting the 'Chocolate Banana Cake' than I planned.  Ok chocolate banana cake is from the next section of the encyclopedia of baking, see posts about food Friday if you're new and have no idea what I mean, 'Low-Fat Cakes and Bakes'  so I am interested to see what it turns out like and I hope it's good.

mashed banana and chocolate cake mixture

My main problem at the moment though is that this cake takes 1 hour 15 minutes to bake, what kind of a cake takes that long apart from a fruit cake before you all reply.  And exactly as the cake is going to be ready to come out of the oven, I have to be the other side of town.  I have one hope of saviour though Dr J. He should be coming home from work before that time although after I will have left.  Ok I am going to leave a big note on my blackboard and cross my fingers.  I do hope it works as it is starting to smell real good in here. He should notice as long as his mind is not filled with scientific experimenty things.

Rising nicely as I leave to get daughter

My notice board is one of the thing that I'm most pleased with in the kitchen. I painted blackboard paint directly onto the wall and then used some left over wooden trim to make a frame and 'no-more nailed' it to the wall around.  It took a bit of jiggling, with me and my daughter trying to get it to line up before the things stuck but definitely worth it, as we always have messages being left with teenage kids in and out all the time.


Well I'm back and it's ok in the fact that Dr J. saw the message and took the cake out, what is not so good is the size of the cake. It's flat as a pancake, don't know why, but it is.

On the taste test though it's ok, Dr J. likes it, but darling daughter doesn't. I might need to ice it to get her approval. Next time I think I'll go for the full fat version instead.

That's about all for now.
speak next week.
Ally
x