How to bake a cake.

Before you begin I suggest you make a coffee… or two as this might take a while… and join me for a cake baking adventure.  Cake is always better with coffee don't you agree? Or a nip of whiskey perhaps?

Challenge Number One

An Italian bachelor’s pad does not have a well equipped kitchen.  So my first task is to buy a cake tin.  No hang on go back a step… before that I have to try to explain what I want to Giorgio. His English is constantly improving but some English words he has had no need to learn and he would never have used a cake tin before or even seen his mother use one. Cooking is not one of her talents.  His expertise is in Italian basics such as pasta and risotto. Any cakes that cross this threshold are ready made and most likely what we would call a jam tart.  I tried to find cake tins at the supermarket and several other shops without success. Even in Ikea I could not find one. After a  2 hour train journey  to visit my Australian friend Kaye in Orvieto I am the owner of a beautiful non-stick cake tin and a slice tray.


 I photocopied a few of my favorite recipes and brought  with me. Now I am ready to  bake Linda's delicious whiskey sultana cake to share with friends that are coming for a chestnut roast.  I think I have all the ingredients on hand.  Keep in mind that the nearest alimentary (grocery shop) is at least 30mins drive away so these days it's impossible to pop down to the IGA for another ingredient.

Challenge number two

Recipe in hand, final check.  How am I going to measure 5oz of sugar and 6oz of flour?  May be the Italian woman living next door will have kitchen scales, Giorgio says Annalisa is a good cook and often mouth watering smells come from her kitchen.  She speaks no English so I explained to Giorgio so he could ask her for me. He suggested I could just use the bathroom scales!!   But after further explaining the need for accurate weighing of small amounts  he went across the hall to ask Annalisa … without success.

I was not going to be beaten so I got onto Google and found a weights and measures conversion site. In case you ever need to know - 1 oz is approximately 30 grams is approximately ¼ cup of flour and sugar.

Challenge number three

A bachelor’s pad does not have measuring cups or measuring spoons. In fact tablespoons do not seem to exist in Italy. But I am sure I can estimate all of this well enough. I make use of  a small food processor and it's wand gadget that was gathering dust in a far corner of a cupboard  and in no time the  butter and sugar is creamed and egg added.


Challenge four

I can’t add anything else as I have run out of room in the food processor bowl… so I move it into a glass bowl.  In this kitchen to reach plates, bowls, and most of the food I need to stand on a chair. I figure I am burning more calories doing step ups numerous times each day and can therefore eat more cake later.

Standing on my toes and those plates are still out of reach, that's the draining cupboard with the glass door.

The bowl I need is in a cupboard above the fridge and I can only reach it standing on a chair, and the fridge door comes open with the cupboard door. 

Challenge number five 

… Actually read that as 'stuff up' rather than challenge. It is only possible to buy plain flour and little sachets of a raising agent which I presume might be baking powder.  I had to estimate the amount to add as the instructions were in Italian and not easy to translate - it think it says the whole packet of 'levante' is for 500grams of flour... more arithmetic... and I stir it thoroughly through the flour...  Then back to the recipe for the next stage. Oops it needed bicarb soda not baking powder. Tip that lot in the bin and mix a new batch.

Challenge number six

No citrus juicer for the lemon… no problem I can muster up a good squeeze… but a strainer for the pips would have been handy. Fish them out with a teaspoon – lucky I am patient.

Now it’s all going well and beginning to look like a cake mix… it's ready for the sultanas that have been simmered in water  (how will I strain them?)  The colander for the pasta has such large holes, phew, they never went through.

Challenge number seven

All of this is not going to fit into that glass bowl… and there are no larger bowls in the house…. A saucepan converts beautifully into a mixing bowl.

Challenge number eight

Magnificent!  It’s all in the oven and looking as it should. Now how will I test if it is cooked ?  No skewer to be found. Is a tooth pick long enough?  … Yes.  No rack for cooling. A plate it will have to be. (Climb onto the chair again) 

Challenge number nine … the icing.

Can you put light brown fine-ish sugar into a food processor and turn it into icing sugar? NO!  If I add the butter that it needs to be creamed with will it all those gritty bits sort of dissolve? NO!  What if I add the lemon juice and whiskey? NO! It’s still gritty and not icing texture at all.  But it is finger licking good now.

I've lost count of how many bowls and pots and swapping between occurred in the making of this cake ... and the dishwasher is not working at present :o(

Contingency plan ... aka 'make it up as you go' 

 Put it into a small saucepan and stir it over a low heat. Well it has sort of thickened but it is still gritty.  Tastes good so I give up and spread it over the cooled cake. As you can see it looks okay.

About now I have a giggling fit over how challenging a task can be in a foreign environment. The ingredients all have unfamiliar names, are often packaged really differently, or are not available. 

As we are eating it and I am talking about the problems of getting some ingredients I like to use here.  I explained that I needed to use a really fine zucchero  - and Dario tells me you can get it in Italy. 

It’s only then I remember that I do have some in the cupboard under the TV (The other food cupboard had no more room in it, in fact the entire kitchen, no apartment is tiny - in these photos you see almost all of it except the bathroom) It is called zucchero al velo and comes in 125 gram sachets only.  I was not brave enough to tell Giorgio after he had watched my extraordinary efforts to make beautiful icing.  It is castor sugar that is unavailable here.

YUM, it passed my taste test despite being a little crumbly and my Italian friends either enjoyed it or were too polite to say otherwise.