h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Today has been a quiet day. I was pretty knackered last night, and slept until gone 12 today. Woke up feeling a lot better.

I was going to take J's computer screen down to him on the train, but decided it's too big and heavy, and it's blatantly obvious what it is (as it says all over the box) and I don't want somone nicking it on the train. So I schlepped it to the post office up the road, to find it was shut. Brought the screen back to the house, put it in the car, and went to the post office near university, where they took it off me and charged £19 for Special Delivery.

I made a lemon curd cake this evening. I've decided that there must be something wrong with the temperature of the oven, because this time I was using the correct size tin, and it needed longer to bake. I also know that in an oven of the correct temperature it takes an hour. The landlord has said he'll replace the oven, but I think we need to remind him. Quite franky it's dangerous, and if there were children in the house it certainly wouldn't be acceptable to have an oven with a broken door (needs a chair leaning against it to keep it shut) and an exploding grill.

Hey ho.

The cake also overflowed out of the tin, though I'm not sure why. Fortunately I'd put the tin on a baking tray.

Other than that, I haven't done much. Lurked around in Mustardland, watched Stargate and then later on a bit of Gardener's World, HIGNFY and The Kumars whilst I was eating dinner.

Off to bed now. Tomorrow I will work on the equations.

£19 is a bit steep, isn't it?

Want to join us bad cooks in the corner, bex?

I was expecting it to cost about that much: it weighs 10kg (in the packaging) and is pretty big. The price also includes insurance up to £1000 and it's guaranteed to arrive on Monday.

I'm not a bad cook! I blame the oven.

Thanks for posting the display, Bex. Shame it's not easily luggable (well.. I'll find out if it is luggable on Monday, as I'll need to lug it to/from the station from work/to home.. or resort to driving to work on the Tuesday).




Hey, I've told you several times how to bake a cake in /that oven/.. reduce temp by 25% and increase cooking time by 50%, checking regularly for the last 15% of the time. Go on.. trust me.. try it.. next time! (But I just /know/ you won't).

(And yes, I /do/ know that ML emphasis rules don't apply here, but the emphasis is easily understood, even in plain text).

J (Yes, just "J" now, apparently) {;¬· >···{

Don't need to reduce the temperature by 25%: the oven already does that!

I have cooked the lemon curd cake in teh correct size tin in an oven of definitely the correct temperature (checked iwth a thermometer). This time it was in the correct size tin, but a dodgy oven. Hence undercooking.

Or so you believe.

I would have thought it were better described as "Uneven cooking" as, iirc, after you realise it isn't cooked in the middle - even though it looks cooked on the outside - you give it more time.. and it then ends up overcooked on the outside (and sometimes /still/ not cooked in the middle. At least, this is how I recall you often describing your cake baking attempts on and off board. I would maintain that, if this is indeed the case, you need to cook more slowly. Maybe the thermostat on the oven is lying and - despite the dodgy door - is in fact hotter than it should be.

Of course, with a gap round the door there is a possibility that a lot of the heat (and more importantly - moisture) is escaping thattaway.. and the burners keep burning and the heat escaping (taking moisture with it) and drying out the outer edges of the cake and allowing that part to cook much faster than it should.

Still think you should try reducing the temperature. Have you actually successfully baked a cake in that oven "right first time"?

J {;¬· >···{