Weekend ups and downs, and cake rec

[nineveh_uk]

I know, I thought on Friday afternoon after a busy (half) week of work. I will do the hoovering know, removing the infuriating bits of navy fluff all over the carpets, and then I will not need to do any housework over the weekend and can luxuriate in time and do art and write fic and maybe even review it. And I did hoover, and then spent the entirety of Saturday feeling rubbish, watching skiing, whinging at antisoppist, re-watching a rom-com with frequent pauses, and worst of all not having any cake/ I needed cake, but I had no cake and could face neither making nor going out into the cold to purchase it.

Happily today I felt brighter and therefore did some art, wrestled 500 words of fic into submission** (though not without taking some punches), and most important of all, made Nigella Lawson's emergency brownies. Inevitably I slightly overcooked them*, so they are not as squidgy as they might be, but they are very acceptable. I also have squirty cream kept for such emergencies, and am going to learn from this and ensure that tomorrow's supermarket order contains adequate amounts of cake-like substances so I am not left clawing the pantry shelves and finding only out of date KitKats. And tomorrow heralds the end of the cold weather so I can stopped feeling constantly pinched and actually leave the house, hurray!

*I do this with brownies and thus set the timer very conservatively, but they were not parting from the side of the tin like the recipe said they would, so I let them carry on a bit. Mistake.

**That venerable sub-genre, Prince Jing finds out.

Comments

[white_hart]

Emergency brownies sound like a very good thing.

Ever since we got a microwave I have found myself wondering about mug cakes as a solution to being out of cake when cake is clearly called for, but I haven't had an opportunity to try as we always do seem to have cake these days.

[nineveh_uk]

I considered a microwave mug cake last night, but decided that it felt like too much work and also I wasn't desperate enough. I am going to keep a Jamaica ginger cake in.

[white_hart]

Keeping a Jamaica ginger cake in sounds like an excellent plan.

[perennialanna]

I've never yet found a microwave mug cake that is anything more than edible. I am already a fan of the Nigella emergency chocolate cookies; thank you for the brownies link (pleasingly, I have a very small roasting tin that is exactly the specified size).

[caulkhead]

The chocolate cookies were excellent, thank you for the link.

I shall bookmark this brownie for when I have butter but few eggs (yours is excellent for when I have eggs but no butter, which happens quite a lot because M doesn't eat butter and forgets to buy it).

[nineveh_uk]

For one egg it makes a very acceptable amount of brownie. Though my problem tends to be having eggs sitting around for ages that need using up.

[nineveh_uk]

I took a ruler to the various washed-up foil tins that lurk at the back of the cupboard.

I'd seen the Nigella emergency chocolate cookies on Saturday, but it involved using my hands, which seemed too much like work! They do look nice, though, will try some time.

[perennialanna]

My foil tins always seem to end up with too much burned on to be worth proper washing up and keeping.

[antisoppist]

Out of date kitkats does not compute.

I'm glad the brownies worked. When I saw Nigella making them on telly, it sounded like she was in exactly your situation. When I make her normal ones (which are in fact her cream cheese ones but without the cream cheese), I get 9 out of a square tin and the middle one is too gloopy and the corners are too solid. The four in the sides are the best ones. I probably need to experiment with oven temperature.

[nineveh_uk]

I eat them for work lunches, and had many for Brexit. No work, not urgent KitKat need, they just kind of got forgotten and it turns out that they do go sad.

I wonder whether brownies really need a fan oven.

ETA: Did I tell you that Ocado has a Swedish shop?

[antisoppist]

You told me you could get cinnamon rolls but not that Ocado has a Swedish shop. I am still more inclined to shun them for telling me to piss off in the first lockdown than to haunt them for delivery slots though.

I have been wondering whether the reason why my oven burns things is that it is in fact a fan oven and I didn't know.

[nineveh_uk]

Went to add to my order last night, turned out they were sold out...

Is your oven in fact a fan oven? Because that would definitely explain it.

[sir_guinglain]

KitKats are part of my current method of cheering up the household, along with going through the £2 chocolate box shelves in the Co-op (which are nearly exhausted - next, the £4 shelves).

[nineveh_uk]

This sounds an extremely reliable method of cheering up the household! I am going to buy some new ones and remember they exist this time.

[executrix]

Could out-of-date KitKats be smashed up, soaked in some tasty substance and formed into something like bourbon balls or cake pops, or smashed, toasted slightly to get rid of the stale taste, and used to top ice cream? (Nigella Lawson describes smashed-up chocolate for ice cream as "rubble.")

[nineveh_uk]

I can see this theoretically, but I feel that given the price of KitKats vs alcohol, the best option is probably to cut my losses!

[mrs_redboots]

That emergency brownie recipe would be fine if only I could tolerate golden syrup, but, as it is, I don't ever have it in the house. Mug cake is definitely edible, although not perfect. But we hardly ever do have cake.

[nineveh_uk]

You can use maple syrup instead! But I am a golden syrup fan, it is always there even if it takes ages to finish a tin.

[carbonel]

I have a family brownie recipe that I have made zillions of times, but I finally added a note to the recipe that if I wait until it looks done and a toothpick comes out clean, it will be overdone, and just take it out of the oven when the times says. Because otherwise my tendency was to do much the same as you, and end up with slightly overdone brownies. And really, the failure mode of underdone brownies is much nicer.