Deflation???

Would love to know if one can take a cake out of the oven and put it into a microwave oven to “bake” further...

Tina, our extremely entertaining neighbour came over for a glass of vino at sundowner-time in our garden and so the topic of cake-baking was broached. Please don’t get too excited or put-out as one can easily be mislead by this topic. We are not an expertly cake-baking club and chances for that in this century is sub-zero. I’d rather pack cat food tins.

Some enjoy eating cake. Others have a fuzzy view of what sorts of cake we like and dislike as we hardly ever crave the sweet seduction of cake. Nobody can possibly eat more cake than the British - ever noticed which isles are usually the busiest at any Tesco-, Sainsbury- or M & S store? Their dental work, apart from the French usual in quite a state...

Apart from some of the British shameless lusts, I completely appreciate the artistic beauty of something such as a melting Black-forest chocolate cake. Licking all ten fingers as I stare through a glass window at a creamy blueberry-raspberry chilled roulade. Still, steering well clear of the technicality of "how it got there" and "the baking".

Tina asked if anyone would know why all her cakes suddenly "deflate" just when it ought to fluff and stabilize at the end stage. At this point, I happily rise to refill our glasses with a set expression on my face which says “Don't ask me”. It could just as well have been a question about Greek Mythology and Religion.

The story goes on. Her ancient oven once died in the middle of a delicate baking process. A genius idea struck and a quick calculation was done of timing of transferring a half-baked cake to the micro-wave oven. It did not happen exactly as planned since halfway across the kitchen the cake completely collapsed. Still, it was dumped into the microwave with the undesired result of what intense laser beams sometimes do to flesh or cake – it burned. I asked Tina if they had some rock-cake slices, but she decided then it was time for another top-up. Neatly side-stepping such bald and shameless curiosity.

It also came to light during this intensely interesting conversation, that if one desire of finding a fire-man in one's kitchen, the best thing to do is to leave a pot of popcorn unattended on a hot stove. Apparently these men start showing up uniformly in the kitchen, and out of the blue (smoke).

We moved on to another subject of planning an informal pre-Christmas party at Tina and Johan’s place. So far I have never attended a Shark-Pre-X-Mass Party; it should be interesting for a Cheetah supporter. Anyhow, so we talked about starting a “Cooking-Book Club” in 2009. My job is already certified as the one who will keep the conversation afloat refilling empty glasses and replacing melted candles and wax from the table.

Tina left later than planned and her fiancé in the meantime had given up all hope of chicken-Tina-a-la-??? And started preparing a chicken curry...

Gals, there may be a lesson here for all of us...