fandomhigh | Baking Workshop 7/24, Monday Morning

"Good morning," Piper says cheerfully as the students arrive. "Today, you're going to bake a cake. I made a sample cake for you, but I also brought muffins again. Take whatever you want."

She hands them a list of instructions. "You'll notice that one of the ingredients is coffee, but it's optional. I made a pot of it if you do want to use it. You can even drink it if you want to."

"There are a lot of instructions here, so you can work with a partner if you want to. As always, ask questions if you need help with anything," she adds.

Equipment Needed

Mixer

2 Cake Pans

Measuring Cups

Measuring Spoons

Cooling Rack

Wax Paper

Non-Stick Spray

Ingredients

2 cups Sugar

1/2 cup Butter

1/2 cup Cocoa

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1 cup Coffee (optional)

1/2 cup Buttermilk

2 Eggs

2 cups Flour

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1-1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

Instructions

Mix sugar, butter and cocoa.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Add buttermilk, eggs, vanilla and coffee.

Mix flour, salt, and baking soda on a paper plate.

Then while the mixer is on a low speed add the ingredients from the paper plate into mixing bowl slowly.

Continue to mix the cake batter until there are no more dry ingredients visible.

Scrape sides of bowl if needed while mixing.

Take both cake pans and spray them with cooking spray.

Then put a round sheet of wax paper (the size of the bottom of the pans) in the bottom of each of the cake pans.

After this spray them again so that all the insides of both are covered.

Pour the cake batter into the cake pans making sure that each pan has half of the batter.

Place them into the pre-heated oven for 35 minutes.

Test if done by inserting a tooth pick, if tooth pick comes out clean cake is done.

Cool to room temperature.

Once the cake has cooled take a knife and cut around the side of the pan to loosen the cake.

Then put a cooling rack on top of it and flip the cake over.

Slowly remove the cake pan.

Remove the wax paper by slowly peeling it off horizontally rather than straight up. This will prevent the wax paper from taking pieces of cake with it.

Equipment Needed

Mixer

Spatulas

Measuring Cups

Measuring Spoons

2 Paper Towels

Ingredients

1 Pound Powdered Sugar

1/2 Cup Cocoa

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Vanilla

6 Tablespoons Coffee (optional)

6 Tablespoons Soft Butter

Instructions

Mix sugar, cocoa and salt.

Add vanilla, coffee and butter while the mixer is stirring.

Wet the paper towels, ring them out and lay them over the frosting bowl. This will prevent the chocolate frosting from drying on top until you are ready to frost the chocolate cake.

Frosting the Cake

Take a spatula and spread on a very thin layer of frosting.

You only need enough so that the other layer will stick, don't drench it in frosting.

Now place the unfrosted second layer on the frosted first layer.

Frost the sides of the cake.

To frost the top, scoop out a large amount of frosting onto the top and then spread it around using the end of your spatula rather than the edge.

[ooc: ingredients and instructions from here.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Maybe," Isabel said with a singular lack of enthusiasim. "We can hope at least."

"We followed the instructions," Molly said, sounding disappointed as she put the wet paper towels over the bowl. "It should work right, right?"

"I hope so. Cause? Chocolate cake! That would be a total waste if it didn't." She turned as the buzzer sounded on the oven. "You want to do the honors?"

"Sure," Molly said and grabbed a couple pot holders. She pulled the first pan out of the oven. "Isabel, I don't think we did it right," she said sadly as she turned to show Isabel their 'cake'.

"That's, umm... Just wrong. If you want cake that is." Isabel grinned, grabbing a pen and quickly scribbling across the top of the recipe. When she finished, she held it up. It now read Recipe for a doorstop.

Molly laughed. "Maybe we should ask Piper what we did wrong."

"That's probably a good idea," she agreed. "Just for future reference."

"I'll go ask her to come look," Molly said and went over to talk to Piper (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/949278.html?thread=49430302#t49430302).

After talking to Piper, Isabel removed the paper towels from the frosting and six tablespoons of milk to replace the coffee called for in the recipe. "Here goes nothing," she said as she turned the mixer on.

Molly watched the mixture in the bowl and grinned. "I think it's working. Yay!"

"But there's a problem," Isabel said sadly.

"What's that?" Molly asked.

"Do we really want to waste good icing on that?" she asked, pointing to the very sad looking cake.

"Definitely not," Molly said.

"There really is only one solution then," Isabel said firmly. Reaching into a drawer, she pulled out two spoons and handed one to Molly. She turned off the mixer and put the bowl on the table between them.

Molly took the spoon with a big smile. "I am so totally with this plan," she said and scooped out a good sized spoonful of frosting.

"Mmmm, good frosting."

"It is a very good plan," Isabel agreed with a smile, taking her own scoop of frosting. "Besides, the frosting is always the best part."

Molly nodded and took another spoonful.

"Cam will be disappointed the cake didn't turn out," she said with a sigh.

"That's true, he is the king of the chocolate cakes," she nodded. "How's he doing? Disappointed that there was no pranking this time around?"

"I'm not sure what he thinks, but I know I'm not disappointed." Molly took another spoonful of frosting before continuing. "I don't know if you know or not, but Cam and I are back to being just friends again," she said evenly.

"It was definitely more peaceful this time around," Isabel agreed, waving her spoon for emphasis. Then she blinked. "No I didn't. I'm sorry. What happened?"

Molly sighed. "Bad timing really," she said.

Isabel poked at the bowl of frosting with her spoon. "And taking it slow didn't help? I know that's what I told him to do when we talked a while ago."

Molly shook her head. "Cam was still... I don't know." She shook her head again. "So, I told him we could go back to just friends. Things were a little weird for a bit, but they're pretty much back to normal now."