Every Christmas, I am tasked with baking three Oreo Cakes. It's not like I start from scratch, but even using a box mix, three cakes take time. Especially when you have to cut and then chop a package of Oreos before mixing the batter. I need enough Oreo halves to surround the base of the cake, and five halves to arrange on top in a star pattern. Then the rest hacked with a fork into smaller pieces to mix in the batter, reserving the tiny crumbs for sprinkling on top.
The three cakes go to HOS (Farmer H's Oldest Son), The Veteran (Farmer H's second son), and our Christmas Dinner. Farmer H delivers the Oreo Cakes to the older boys' houses on Christmas Eve Eve. Which was Saturday this year. So I baked their cakes on Friday.
The baking of the first cake went off without a hitch. I had already cut two packages of Oreos, so that step was done. The first cake was out of the oven and cooling on a rack I set over the dish drainer in my clean sink. I had washed and dried my beaters and mixing bowl and spatula and measuring cup while the first cake was baking. Then I started on Cake 2.
Everything was going smoothly. I had the dry mix, the three eggs, the cup of water, and the half cup of oil in the mixing bowl. I snapped the beaters on the mixer, looked at the microwave clock to time my two minutes, and turned the mixer on MEDIUM. But NOT!
THE MIXER WOULDN'T WORK! It was dead as a doornail!
I knew right away that the problem did not lie with the mixer. I have this issue frequently when trying to bake multiple cakes. Something is wonky with the wiring! Yes. It WAS installed by Farmer H when he built the Mansion. But the rest of our electricity works. Just not the three outlets on this kitchen wall, under the cabinets. The mixer trips the breaker, and none of the three outlets will work. But only the SECOND time I try to use the mixer.
I went to the walk-in closet in the master bathroom to reset the breaker. NOPE! I tried seven ways from Sunday, but nothing would make that breaker stay on! I pushed to the right. I pushed to the left. I held in the little white tab thingy that popped out, and pushed each direction. I pushed each direction, and then held in the little white tab thingy. Nothing worked.
I went back to my bowl of ingredients, picked up a fork, and began the vigorous 2-minute beating. That was exhausting! I put in the Oreo pieces. The cake pans didn't look quite as full of batter as the first cake. It baked all right. Didn't rise quite as high as the first.
THEN I wanted to move the first cooling cakes off the clean sink, so I could rinse out my bowl without splashing them. The cutting block was taken up by another large mixing bowl that I don't like for mixing. It has a groove round the bottom inside. I use it to balance a smaller rack for cooling cakes.
The first cakes were still in their foil baking pans, on the rack. I picked up the whole rack, telling myself to be careful not to let them slide off. Well. Of course you know what happened. Just as I was setting down that rack on the right side of the cutting block, the far right cake took a swan dive off the rack. Luckily, this cake did not know how to execute a perfect swan dive. Because he landed on his edge, then flopped on his bottom. WHEW! Disaster narrowly averted!
That cake was fine. It didn't even crack. In fact, I think that jarring actually loosened it from the pan for me. Because it came out easily when I tipped it over to cool naked on the rack.
I went to town while the cakes were cooling. Upon return, I picked up the two pizza pans I'd had Farmer H get for me, for washing. I use them to put the cakes on that I give away. Too many years of giving an actual cake carrier. I figured they had enough about five years in!
Anyhoo... I couldn't find the cheap pizza pans in 10Box, though Country Mart used to have them. Farmer H came home with the fancy non-stick kind, but they were better than nothing. Or a cake carrier. THEN I saw that one was BENT on the edge! Further investigation showed that they were BOTH bent!
Leave it to Farmer H to buy me BENT pizza pans. Or more likely, he dropped the bag, and that's why both of them were bent. I pried and twisted, and got them almost back to normal. The cakes went on without incident, the icing cooperated, and Oreos adorned them more than adequately.
Nothing has been easy this year!
5 comments:
Your last sentence was exactly what I was thinking. I hope things get better. First the Chex Mix, now the Oreo cakes. Although, it does seem that a lot of the things that challenge you are not because of what you may or may not have done. Oh, well - the work must almost all be behind you now so you can relax and enjoy your day. Maybe the Pony will help with clean up. Ranee (MN)
Is it possible the fuses aren't strong enough and that's why they keep tripping the breaker?
Do you scrape out the filling from the oreos or does that get mixed in too?
Rae,
It's all over, but my knees are still pouting. The Pony is great for putting stuff back in FRIG II. I don't ask him for help washing the dishes. I don't mind that, even though it takes two times, because I can't get everything in the drainer. I'm not about to dry dishes by hand. Washing them that way is enough.
We had a great time, and now have leftovers that Farmer H can fetch for himself!
***
River,
Farmer H said it's something about a ground-fault interrupter. I think that's something that has to be used in areas where there's a water source, like bathrooms and kitchens. Not sure, and I'm not in the mood for one of his lectures that might or might not be factual! His first explanation was that I must have a faulty mixer! There's nothing getting water on those outlets, so I'm not sure why they're shutting off. I think Farmer H is smart enough to put in wires that can run kitchen appliances in the kitchen! But you never know...
I leave the filling in. These days, there's not much filling anyway! Just a tiny thin dab in the middle of the cookie, that doesn't reach the edges. The filling melts during baking, but occasionally you can see a fleck of it inside the slice.
I am sorry, but I laughed! It sounds like my cookie aking before we left for Florida. If I had dropped a cake, in a pan or not, I doubt I would have been able to pick it up before Bo got to it. He has special powers and can hear food of any kind falling and is there to snatch it up! He does not share willingly!
Kathy,
At least I did not have crazy leaping Scarlett in the kitchen to contend with!
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