I am no Martha Stewart ... Jenny's Adventures with Cooking

I want to start off by saying that many concepts have come easily to me. Cooking is not on that list. I know you think that I joke around when I say I can't cook. Read on...


Contender - Pillsbury Funfetti Premium Cake



22:00 Said Goodnight to Justin and began my quest to make a cake!

22:03 Sorting through the hundreds of boxes in our pantry for the cake mix. Shall we try the Complete Desserts Triple Chocolate Hot Fudge Cake? No, it says "everything included with fudge and drizzle toppings." I don't think that I can handle more then one bag of contents to mix. Even Cassie thinks that this might just be a little to difficult for me.

22:07 Poured the contents of the box in a glass bowel. Probably should have checked to made sure we had all the ingredients!

22:10 "1/3 cup of oil" We have pure vegetable oil and classic olive oil. They probably should have clarified that in the directions for all the non-cooking folk! We'll go with the vegetable oil - sounds a little less specific.

22:15 "3 whole eggs" When would I not use the whole egg? I couldn't imagine trying to split the egg ... and they didn't give me directions for anything but a whole egg. Moving on...

22:17 "Blend contents in a large bowel until moistened. Beat with a hand mixer on low speed for 2 minutes or whisk by hand for 2 minutes." We are going to go with the hand mixer. I wonder if I can use my yellow Kitchen aid one though? It's not a hand one. hmph. Not time to stray from the instructions now. Time to find the hand mixer...

22:23 Found the hand mixer! Never been open though. hmph.

22:25 Mixer finally operational. So there are 7 settings on this fancy mixer. Checked the directions and no it did not tell me what setting to use. Guess we will go with 4.. right in the middle.

22:26 There is a funny smell coming from the mixer. Hope it is "the first time use" smell.

22:27 So there are still lumps and bumps in the batter... turn it up to setting six and go for another minute!



22:28 All mixed and ready to go! Now to choose the pan... Pictures of a rectangle, two circles, or cupcakes - my kind of cooking! We will go with the two circles because I would like to do a double decker cake.

22:33 Pans sprayed and poured the batter. It is hard to get these things even .. Goodness!

22:35 In the oven - yay!

22:36 So trying to choose the bake times... Apparently there is a difference between two 8 inch round pans (32 - 36 min) and two 9 inch round pans (27 - 31 min). The picture didn't show two different options and I didn't check before they went into the oven!

22:37 Still deciding about the times... I will go with 26 minutes... sounds good to me.

22:40 Time to enjoy the left over batter :)

22:50 Smelling good and almost time to check! Wait.. how does someone know when a cake is done??

22:54 Apparently you can stick a knife in, and if it comes out gooey then it needs to be in longer. Also - if it is in too long if it looks burnt. Thanks yahoo answers.

23:00 Is that a burning smell? It shouldn't be done for three more minutes! Goodness!

23:02 Cakes are brown (hope that's a good thing!)And no "goey-ness" Didn't notice any charring or concaveness of the cake. Very good. Time for the cool down. Can you put them in the fridge to help out with that? Didn't mention it in the directions .. and I don't feel very risky right now.



23:13 Still warm.. "To remove cake from pan, allow to cool 10-15 minutes before removing. Cool cake completely before frosting" Are we talking about two different times here, and why do I have to wait so long? Also, the box mislead me. I thought it was going to tell me how to remove the cakes from their pans and all it did was tell me how long I had to wait. hmph. A few more minutes before I remove the cakes.. Not looking forward to this one.

21:19 I will attempt to remove the cakes from their pans...

23:21 So I just turned them over in my hand and let them fall out. Both cakes are in one piece! Success! They are warm though. How cool do they have to be to frost?? Again contemplating the refrigerator.



23:22 The pans were 8 inches and cooked faster then what they said the 9 inch ones would cook. No wonder I burn everything!

23:26 Two things I don't like about cooking... the actually cooking part and the cleaning up afterward. Sigh... While cleaning guess I will stick the cakes in the fridge. It will only be for a few minutes - what can it hurt?

23:39 Kitchen is clean and the cakes are good and cold. Time for frosting!

23:43 Icing a cake is not a strong point of mine.. and I think I am going to run out of frosting...

23:48 Note to self.. two cakes need two containers of icing. You can definately tell that I decided to stick two cakes on top of each other. Sadness. And I think I am breaking a sweat. All this for a cake! Goodness. Continuing to ice...

23:51 The top of the icing that had the sprinkles exploaded (while i tried to open it) and now there are sprinkles everywhere. Plus, I hit my head on the microwave trying to salvage the rest of the sprinkles.Ouch! Thanks Cyrus and Ginger for the help with the sprinkle pick up.

23:56 Almost exactly two hours after I set out to make a cake, I have finished.



There you have it folks. This is why I am not Martha Stewart and keeping my night job. And for laughs - guess who volunteered to have Thanksgiving dinner at her place this year? Me! haha.

Goodness.