An Angry Face and a Happy Cake

Isn't this a great face??? It cracks me up. I ran across it while researching something on the internet and couldn't help but wonder WHAT in the WORLD put this face on this boy.

Maybe he had some great idea for a wonderful project, and it was thwarted.

Maybe he couldn't get his own way.

Maybe he was just really frustrated by the people in his life.

Come to think of it, I can relate!

This has been one of those days. Actually, January has been one of those months! (I really hope this isn't an omen for the coming year!)

Three separate projects I am working on are stalled.

I can't get the things done I want to get done.

And sometimes I get really frustrated by the people in my life!

Do you suppose the boy in the picture felt better after making that face? Maybe it will work for me...

*scrunching face muscles around nose*

*drawing down eyebrows*

*baring lower teeth*

*growling*

...

and cracking up!

Yep, it made me feel better!

For some reason, that reminds me that I need to update you on the wonders of the 5-minute cake recipe from the previous posting. Cake is such a happy thing... provided it's not smothered in store-bought frosting. But something with the recipe just wasn't quite... right. So we analyzed the final product (of course, like in any good test process, this required repeated experiments), researched, tweaked, and adjusted. Here are the results.

First of all, the men in my life hate digging a cake out of a mug. And if you dump it onto a plate, it wobbles there like a brown, rubbery tower of ... well, never mind. But you sure don't want to eat it after that mental image. EWW.

There was also that rubbery issue. I suspected we were cooking the cake at too high power, researched, and confirmed that our microwave does cook at more than the required 1000 watts when on HIGH setting.

Then there's the kind of eggy flavor. What if we only use an egg white, or half an egg? We could make two cakes at a time (baking separately, though, for this trial run), and split one egg between the two.

Time for more experiments! YES!

Cooking the batter in a bowl instead of a mug proved to be a minor adjustment. So did convincing my son we need to use Level 8 instead of Level 10 on the microwave. Splitting an egg was a different matter!

Even Tim knows that you can't split a raw egg in half right out of the shell. So we broke the egg into an extra bowl and beat it up with a fork... but then it came time to pour half of the beaten egg into one cake bowl and half into the other. Don't do this. That little bugger actually developed a life of its own! It was determined to slither entirely into one bowl, and when thwarted, morphed into a slimy space alien creature right out of an old Calvin & Hobbes comic strip, and splashed all over the floor. UGH. Even the dog wasn't happy with that mess.

So - rather than giving up and just using an egg white, we got the brainy idea of beating up a new egg with a fork in the abandoned bowl, then taking a soup spoon and dishing out one spoonful at a time into the two separate cake batter bowls. THAT worked. HA! We beat the egg, We divided, We conquered! Julius Ceasar should be so victorious.

The adjustments really helped. The end result was two fluffy, non-rubbery, non-eggy tasting dome-shaped cakes when dumped out onto a small plate. Nice. I'm thinkin' the boy in the picture needed a piece of it!

But what if you're craving a quick cakey snack but - perish the thought - don't want chocolate? I do have some friends who can get enough chocolate, and although I don't pretend to understand them, I'm willing to try to accommodate their taste preferences. (Leaves more chocolate for me!)

Time to research and experiment some more! (There goes the New Year's diet.)

So here's what we found on the internet. We tried the Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake and found it deeeelicious! The only down side - once you invest the energy into making two of these cakes, you might as well make a whole regular cake and cook it in the regular oven! But that takes some of the fun out of it, don't you think?

We haven't tried the Jello Cake or Spice Cake recipes yet, so if you try them, you'll have to let us know how they turn out.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate 5-Minute Cake

Ingredients
4 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons peanut butter (add more if you want)
1/8 Teaspoon baking powder
1 Egg white (or half an egg)
4 Tablespoons milk (or soy milk)
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil (or unsweetened applesauce)
1/4 Teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 Cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 Microwave-safe bowl or mug

Instructions
Mix flour, sugar and baking powder
Mix in egg white
Add in milk, peanut butter, oil and vanilla, and mix well
Put in microwave for 2.5 minutes (add 30 sec if necessary) on 1000 watts
Wait until it stops rising and sets in the bowl/mug

Jello 5-Minute Cake

Ingredients
4 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 Teaspoon sugar-free jello powder, any flavor
1/8 Teaspoon baking powder
1 Egg white
3 Tablespoons milk (or soy milk)
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 Heaping tablespoon unsweetened applesauce
1/4 Teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Microwave-safe bowl or mug

Instructions
Mix flour, sugar, jello and baking powder
Mix in egg white
Pour in milk, oil, applesauce and vanilla, and mix well
Put in microwave for 2.5 minutes (add 30 sec if necessary) on 1000 watts
Wait until it stops rising and sets in the bowl/mug

Spicy 5-Minute Cake

Ingredients
4 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons sugar
2 Teaspoons spice (cinnamon, ginger, whatever you like. Add more/less if you want)
1/8 Teaspoon baking powder
1 Egg white
3 Tablespoons milk (or soy milk)
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 Teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Microwave-safe bowl or mug

Instructions
Mix flour, sugar, spice and baking powder
Mix in egg white
Pour in milk, oil and vanilla, and mix well
Put in microwave for 2.5 minutes (add 30 sec if necessary) on 1000 watts
Wait until it stops rising and sets in the bowl/mug


Have fun! And don't forget to let us know your results!