The General Chat Thread (2024)

Spent the day (actually yesterday) preparing for my birthday (which is actually today).

Spent last week planning the menu. I decided I want to make my own birthday cake today which in itself is odd because I don't eat cake. But the family is a big fan of chocolate cake. I grab my 16 year old cookbook with all the family recipes and find my grandma's classic chocolate cake with ganache that everyone enjoys, and I decide that's what I will make. I spend the next two days ruminating in my head, and part of me feels like this is the time to go all in and break out something special for my bday. I start tinkering with the idea of an elaborate cake. Spend some time doing research, and finally settle for Claire Saffitz's layered chocolate cake, just because I'm very keen on suffering ambitious.

I buy my ingredients, and today (yesterday) I wake up feeling good about my plan. Wake up early, unload the dishwasher, start prepping the other dishes for tomorrow (chicken and a complicated fish dish that takes two pans, boiled fish that needs to be deboned and shredded, a roux, and fried potatoes). I'm done close to lunch time and still have time to do laundry and then I do the ironing. I decided I want to hit the gym since it's only a little past 3PM and the cake seems easy enough, so there I go. 5PM I'm back at home, hang the clothes on the clothesline, prep the veggies for my soup and let the Instant Pot do its thing, and then I get started on the cake.

Nightmare ensues.

The recipe has something like 30 different ingredients and 13 different steps. I start with the cake batter, and it's a bit more work than I expected. Basically envolves mixing the dries, separating egg yolks, blooming cocoa powder in hot coffee, and probably thirteen other steps that trauma has erased from my memory. Everything needs to be weighed on a scale, and placed into different bowls and containers, and because I'm a messy cook I'm fumbling around the kitchen trying to get everything ready. OK batter is ready to go into the oven. Oven is preheated, baking pans are greased. Claire showed a really easy and cool trick to easily cut parchment paper so it's exactly the same diameter as the pan, but I feel like I'm back in elementary school doing arts and crafts and I was never good at that and I just can't pull it off so I just do it the old fashioned way, using a pen to mark the circumference of the pan in the parchment paper. Cake batter is supposed to be 550g in each pan so once again I grab the scale. At this point that poor scale has seen more action in a day than during the entire year of 2023. Time to get the pans in to the oven and much to my horror I find that the pans I got are too large for my oven and I can't put the two of them side by side like it's supposed to so one of the pans is kinda tilted to the side but let's just live with it (dumb me didn't think I could just bake the third cake separately).

Meanwhile I need to rewatch Claire's video making sure I'm not missing anything and the timing and appearance of everything looks more or less like what she shows on the video.

The cakes come out of the oven and one of them is incredibly wonky. Like, completely tilted to one side of the pan. I would have to remove half the cake to make it even. The cakes are also larger and thinner than what Claire shows in the video but I don't care.

At this point the dishwasher is full and running again, and I get started on the frosting. The frosting is a cross between a german buttercream and pudding, Claire says. It's the same amount of work as making both a buttercream and a pudding, that's what she means. Once again the scale comes out. There's small dishes and containers all over the kitchen but the sink is almost full with stuff that didn't fit in the dishwasher plus the bowl of the stand mixer needs to be hand washed since it was needed right there and then. First step is simmering milk together with sugar, I think this is the first time in my life I'm simmering milk and there I am expecting it to be simmered like any other liquid but nothing's happening and the milk has already been on the stove longer than what the recipe said. A bit of googling tells me what temperature the milk should be at, the kitchen thermometer comes out and the milk is good to go. Now I have to mix cocoa powder with flour and sugar. Then mix in 5 yolks that have been separated from the whites. And then I'm supposed to whisk vigorously until it all turns a smooth, pale brown mixture. However the good whisks are all in the dishwasher and the only whisk available at this point is a wonky silicone thing and all the mix gets trapped inside the whisk. Get rid of the whisk, grab a fork, a bit of vigorous mixing and with the strenght of all my anger I finally get the mix to the desired consistency. Now temper the yolks/cocoa mix, back to the stove, cook until it thickens.

Meanwhile I need to rewatch Claire's video making sure I'm not screwing this effing recipe even further and that the timing and appearance of everything looks more or less like what she shows on the video and sometimes it does sometimes I doesn't but I carry on like the good masochist that I am.

I also have to chop chocolate which I never did before. First time ever chopping chocolate in my life and probably the last. Chopped chocolate goes into the bowl of stand mixer, then the milk/cocoa, mix until smooth. Now time to add room temperature butter. Almost 300g of butter that needs to be added one tablespoon at the time. Takes me a good 10 minutes to incorporate all the butter. Finally, it's time to assemble the cake.

At this point the sink is full again, I'm running out of bowls and tupperwares and containers, there's chocolate all over the kitchen, the oven trays are on top of the coffee machine, the fruit bowl is on top of the freezer chest, oven mitts are God knows where. I grab the cakes and they look kinda wonky and one of them is definitely very wonky. At this point I realize my 100sq feet kitchen is no place to bake a layer cake. I don't have enough counter space for the cakes so one of them is on the counter while the other is on the small table by the window and the other on the stovetop and I take turns trying to level them. Once again one of the cakes is so incredibly wonky I'd need to cut half the cake to get make it level but I just give up and I assemble the cake.

At this point it's 11PM. I started the cake before 7PM. I have no idea what went on but I think I went time travelling somewhere during the afternoon/night.

Once again my kitchen looks like a hurricane has been here. Chocolate is everywhere and there isn't an inch of counter space available. And did I mention there's chocolate everywhere? There's chocolate in places of the kitchen I didn't even know existed. The cake looks ugly. I was supposed to do two layers of frosting, a crumb layer and then a normal one but I just don't bother. My cakes are also larger than originally intended so I don't have enough frosting for two layers sorry Claire. Now the cake needs to be chilled before being stored at room temperature but it takes a bit of tetris and moving stuff around so the cake can fit.

The cake is now resting on the kitchen counter and I am so spent, I just wanna lay in bed and not think about the cake anymore, and I hope they like the cake tomorrow and if they don't eat it all then I'm ditching my family.

I hope for a nice night of sleep but I think I will have nightmares where Claire yells at me and tells me my cake looks ugly and uneven.

Getting ready for bed I find there's a bit of chocolate on my elbow.
 
LissaC said:
Spent the day (actually yesterday) preparing for my birthday (which is actually today).
Click to expand...
Oh dear, there’s so much there to get after…

First, apart from all that, congratulations on your birthday. You made things so much better for so many people just by being on this planet, you don’t even know. After a day/night like that, I won’t say “happy birthday,” just congratulations on making it another year and keeping your head on straight and thanks for being here. We love you!

Now, have a drink, have a piece of chocolate (I know you have some stashed somewhere), and then have some more chocolate.

After that, just think about the things you did today that went well, and my god, I have to say, just one of those dishes you prepped probably would have done me in, but you went to the gym, and then made that cake, even if it did go a little wonky.

As someone who has effed up more cakes than I can remember (ok, that’s a lie, I remember every one of those little <bleep>ers! 😠 ), if it really goes wrong…chop it up and call it a trifle (and that’s advice straight from Jacques Pepin).

Really, truly, I have been in your shoes more than once - I’ve gotten much, much better about it, but that used to be every Christmas and Thanksgiving and New Year’s around here - I’d decide on things that took way too much effort, get every bowl and pan dirty, and then freak out over it. One of these days, I’ll have to tell you about the only Christmas party I hosted, where before the planning was over, I made something like 27 appetizers and about six different drinks. It was madness.

Anticipate now how you’re going to react if your family doesn’t appreciate that cake, just so you’re not caught off guard. Hopefully, they’ll appreciate it, but family being what they are… :whistling:

Relax and enjoy the day tomorrow!
 
LissaC said:
Spent the day (actually yesterday) preparing for my birthday (which is actually today).

Spent last week planning the menu. I decided I want to make my own birthday cake today which in itself is odd because I don't eat cake. But the family is a big fan of chocolate cake. I grab my 16 year old cookbook with all the family recipes and find my grandma's classic chocolate cake with ganache that everyone enjoys, and I decide that's what I will make. I spend the next two days ruminating in my head, and part of me feels like this is the time to go all in and break out something special for my bday. I start tinkering with the idea of an elaborate cake. Spend some time doing research, and finally settle for Claire Saffitz's layered chocolate cake, just because I'm very keen on suffering ambitious.

I buy my ingredients, and today (yesterday) I wake up feeling good about my plan. Wake up early, unload the dishwasher, start prepping the other dishes for tomorrow (chicken and a complicated fish dish that takes two pans, boiled fish that needs to be deboned and shredded, a roux, and fried potatoes). I'm done close to lunch time and still have time to do laundry and then I do the ironing. I decided I want to hit the gym since it's only a little past 3PM and the cake seems easy enough, so there I go. 5PM I'm back at home, hang the clothes on the clothesline, prep the veggies for my soup and let the Instant Pot do its thing, and then I get started on the cake.

Nightmare ensues.

The recipe has something like 30 different ingredients and 13 different steps. I start with the cake batter, and it's a bit more work than I expected. Basically envolves mixing the dries, separating egg yolks, blooming cocoa powder in hot coffee, and probably thirteen other steps that trauma has erased from my memory. Everything needs to be weighed on a scale, and placed into different bowls and containers, and because I'm a messy cook I'm fumbling around the kitchen trying to get everything ready. OK batter is ready to go into the oven. Oven is preheated, baking pans are greased. Claire showed a really easy and cool trick to easily cut parchment paper so it's exactly the same diameter as the pan, but I feel like I'm back in elementary school doing arts and crafts and I was never good at that and I just can't pull it off so I just do it the old fashioned way, using a pen to mark the circumference of the pan in the parchment paper. Cake batter is supposed to be 550g in each pan so once again I grab the scale. At this point that poor scale has seen more action in a day than during the entire year of 2023. Time to get the pans in to the oven and much to my horror I find that the pans I got are too large for my oven and I can't put the two of them side by side like it's supposed to so one of the pans is kinda tilted to the side but let's just live with it (dumb me didn't think I could just bake the third cake separately).

Meanwhile I need to rewatch Claire's video making sure I'm not missing anything and the timing and appearance of everything looks more or less like what she shows on the video.

The cakes come out of the oven and one of them is incredibly wonky. Like, completely tilted to one side of the pan. I would have to remove half the cake to make it even. The cakes are also larger and thinner than what Claire shows in the video but I don't care.

At this point the dishwasher is full and running again, and I get started on the frosting. The frosting is a cross between a german buttercream and pudding, Claire says. It's the same amount of work as making both a buttercream and a pudding, that's what she means. Once again the scale comes out. There's small dishes and containers all over the kitchen but the sink is almost full with stuff that didn't fit in the dishwasher plus the bowl of the stand mixer needs to be hand washed since it was needed right there and then. First step is simmering milk together with sugar, I think this is the first time in my life I'm simmering milk and there I am expecting it to be simmered like any other liquid but nothing's happening and the milk has already been on the stove longer than what the recipe said. A bit of googling tells me what temperature the milk should be at, the kitchen thermometer comes out and the milk is good to go. Now I have to mix cocoa powder with flour and sugar. Then mix in 5 yolks that have been separated from the whites. And then I'm supposed to whisk vigorously until it all turns a smooth, pale brown mixture. However the good whisks are all in the dishwasher and the only whisk available at this point is a wonky silicone thing and all the mix gets trapped inside the whisk. Get rid of the whisk, grab a fork, a bit of vigorous mixing and with the strenght of all my anger I finally get the mix to the desired consistency. Now temper the yolks/cocoa mix, back to the stove, cook until it thickens.

Meanwhile I need to rewatch Claire's video making sure I'm not screwing this effing recipe even further and that the timing and appearance of everything looks more or less like what she shows on the video and sometimes it does sometimes I doesn't but I carry on like the good masochist that I am.

I also have to chop chocolate which I never did before. First time ever chopping chocolate in my life and probably the last. Chopped chocolate goes into the bowl of stand mixer, then the milk/cocoa, mix until smooth. Now time to add room temperature butter. Almost 300g of butter that needs to be added one tablespoon at the time. Takes me a good 10 minutes to incorporate all the butter. Finally, it's time to assemble the cake.

At this point the sink is full again, I'm running out of bowls and tupperwares and containers, there's chocolate all over the kitchen, the oven trays are on top of the coffee machine, the fruit bowl is on top of the freezer chest, oven mitts are God knows where. I grab the cakes and they look kinda wonky and one of them is definitely very wonky. At this point I realize my 100sq feet kitchen is no place to bake a layer cake. I don't have enough counter space for the cakes so one of them is on the counter while the other is on the small table by the window and the other on the stovetop and I take turns trying to level them. Once again one of the cakes is so incredibly wonky I'd need to cut half the cake to get make it level but I just give up and I assemble the cake.

At this point it's 11PM. I started the cake before 7PM. I have no idea what went on but I think I went time travelling somewhere during the afternoon/night.

Once again my kitchen looks like a hurricane has been here. Chocolate is everywhere and there isn't an inch of counter space available. And did I mention there's chocolate everywhere? There's chocolate in places of the kitchen I didn't even know existed. The cake looks ugly. I was supposed to do two layers of frosting, a crumb layer and then a normal one but I just don't bother. My cakes are also larger than originally intended so I don't have enough frosting for two layers sorry Claire. Now the cake needs to be chilled before being stored at room temperature but it takes a bit of tetris and moving stuff around so the cake can fit.

The cake is now resting on the kitchen counter and I am so spent, I just wanna lay in bed and not think about the cake anymore, and I hope they like the cake tomorrow and if they don't eat it all then I'm ditching my family.

I hope for a nice night of sleep but I think I will have nightmares where Claire yells at me and tells me my cake looks ugly and uneven.

Getting ready for bed I find there's a bit of chocolate on my elbow.
Click to expand...
You did a great job of conveying your frustration in a humorous manner, you could write stories! Sorry you had such an ordeal. Hope you have a wonderful birthday!
 
This is the posh cinema.

42 seats, no more.

20240317_135010.jpg
20240317_134952.jpg


There's a waitress/waiter service and they even bring your popcorn 🍿 out to you, as well as anything purchased from the licensed bar and food... coffee and tea is also available.
 
LissaC said:
Spent the day (actually yesterday) preparing for my birthday (which is actually today).

Spent last week planning the menu. I decided I want to make my own birthday cake today which in itself is odd because I don't eat cake. But the family is a big fan of chocolate cake. I grab my 16 year old cookbook with all the family recipes and find my grandma's classic chocolate cake with ganache that everyone enjoys, and I decide that's what I will make. I spend the next two days ruminating in my head, and part of me feels like this is the time to go all in and break out something special for my bday. I start tinkering with the idea of an elaborate cake. Spend some time doing research, and finally settle for Claire Saffitz's layered chocolate cake, just because I'm very keen on suffering ambitious.

I buy my ingredients, and today (yesterday) I wake up feeling good about my plan. Wake up early, unload the dishwasher, start prepping the other dishes for tomorrow (chicken and a complicated fish dish that takes two pans, boiled fish that needs to be deboned and shredded, a roux, and fried potatoes). I'm done close to lunch time and still have time to do laundry and then I do the ironing. I decided I want to hit the gym since it's only a little past 3PM and the cake seems easy enough, so there I go. 5PM I'm back at home, hang the clothes on the clothesline, prep the veggies for my soup and let the Instant Pot do its thing, and then I get started on the cake.

Nightmare ensues.

The recipe has something like 30 different ingredients and 13 different steps. I start with the cake batter, and it's a bit more work than I expected. Basically envolves mixing the dries, separating egg yolks, blooming cocoa powder in hot coffee, and probably thirteen other steps that trauma has erased from my memory. Everything needs to be weighed on a scale, and placed into different bowls and containers, and because I'm a messy cook I'm fumbling around the kitchen trying to get everything ready. OK batter is ready to go into the oven. Oven is preheated, baking pans are greased. Claire showed a really easy and cool trick to easily cut parchment paper so it's exactly the same diameter as the pan, but I feel like I'm back in elementary school doing arts and crafts and I was never good at that and I just can't pull it off so I just do it the old fashioned way, using a pen to mark the circumference of the pan in the parchment paper. Cake batter is supposed to be 550g in each pan so once again I grab the scale. At this point that poor scale has seen more action in a day than during the entire year of 2023. Time to get the pans in to the oven and much to my horror I find that the pans I got are too large for my oven and I can't put the two of them side by side like it's supposed to so one of the pans is kinda tilted to the side but let's just live with it (dumb me didn't think I could just bake the third cake separately).

Meanwhile I need to rewatch Claire's video making sure I'm not missing anything and the timing and appearance of everything looks more or less like what she shows on the video.

The cakes come out of the oven and one of them is incredibly wonky. Like, completely tilted to one side of the pan. I would have to remove half the cake to make it even. The cakes are also larger and thinner than what Claire shows in the video but I don't care.

At this point the dishwasher is full and running again, and I get started on the frosting. The frosting is a cross between a german buttercream and pudding, Claire says. It's the same amount of work as making both a buttercream and a pudding, that's what she means. Once again the scale comes out. There's small dishes and containers all over the kitchen but the sink is almost full with stuff that didn't fit in the dishwasher plus the bowl of the stand mixer needs to be hand washed since it was needed right there and then. First step is simmering milk together with sugar, I think this is the first time in my life I'm simmering milk and there I am expecting it to be simmered like any other liquid but nothing's happening and the milk has already been on the stove longer than what the recipe said. A bit of googling tells me what temperature the milk should be at, the kitchen thermometer comes out and the milk is good to go. Now I have to mix cocoa powder with flour and sugar. Then mix in 5 yolks that have been separated from the whites. And then I'm supposed to whisk vigorously until it all turns a smooth, pale brown mixture. However the good whisks are all in the dishwasher and the only whisk available at this point is a wonky silicone thing and all the mix gets trapped inside the whisk. Get rid of the whisk, grab a fork, a bit of vigorous mixing and with the strenght of all my anger I finally get the mix to the desired consistency. Now temper the yolks/cocoa mix, back to the stove, cook until it thickens.

Meanwhile I need to rewatch Claire's video making sure I'm not screwing this effing recipe even further and that the timing and appearance of everything looks more or less like what she shows on the video and sometimes it does sometimes I doesn't but I carry on like the good masochist that I am.

I also have to chop chocolate which I never did before. First time ever chopping chocolate in my life and probably the last. Chopped chocolate goes into the bowl of stand mixer, then the milk/cocoa, mix until smooth. Now time to add room temperature butter. Almost 300g of butter that needs to be added one tablespoon at the time. Takes me a good 10 minutes to incorporate all the butter. Finally, it's time to assemble the cake.

At this point the sink is full again, I'm running out of bowls and tupperwares and containers, there's chocolate all over the kitchen, the oven trays are on top of the coffee machine, the fruit bowl is on top of the freezer chest, oven mitts are God knows where. I grab the cakes and they look kinda wonky and one of them is definitely very wonky. At this point I realize my 100sq feet kitchen is no place to bake a layer cake. I don't have enough counter space for the cakes so one of them is on the counter while the other is on the small table by the window and the other on the stovetop and I take turns trying to level them. Once again one of the cakes is so incredibly wonky I'd need to cut half the cake to get make it level but I just give up and I assemble the cake.

At this point it's 11PM. I started the cake before 7PM. I have no idea what went on but I think I went time travelling somewhere during the afternoon/night.

Once again my kitchen looks like a hurricane has been here. Chocolate is everywhere and there isn't an inch of counter space available. And did I mention there's chocolate everywhere? There's chocolate in places of the kitchen I didn't even know existed. The cake looks ugly. I was supposed to do two layers of frosting, a crumb layer and then a normal one but I just don't bother. My cakes are also larger than originally intended so I don't have enough frosting for two layers sorry Claire. Now the cake needs to be chilled before being stored at room temperature but it takes a bit of tetris and moving stuff around so the cake can fit.

The cake is now resting on the kitchen counter and I am so spent, I just wanna lay in bed and not think about the cake anymore, and I hope they like the cake tomorrow and if they don't eat it all then I'm ditching my family.

I hope for a nice night of sleep but I think I will have nightmares where Claire yells at me and tells me my cake looks ugly and uneven.

Getting ready for bed I find there's a bit of chocolate on my elbow.
Click to expand...
I can’t believe English is your second language, really nicely written, very entertaining although painful to read because we’ve all been there!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

You won’t forget this one for a while ay 😂

I have to say the description has put me of making chocolate cake for while and for that I’m grateful 😂🤣😂🤣
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
I have to say the description has put me of making chocolate cake for while and for that I’m grateful 😂🤣😂🤣
Click to expand...
I’m doing a whole St Pat’s menu today (albeit a small one), and now LissaC has gotten in my head a little and I’m just waiting for which part I’m going to <bleep> up! :laugh:
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
This is the posh cinema.

42 seats, no more.

View attachment 111158View attachment 111159

There's a waitress/waiter service and they even bring your popcorn 🍿 out to you, as well as anything purchased from the licensed bar and food... coffee and tea is also available.
Click to expand...
That looks just about exactly like the one we’re going to. The last time we went was when that Star Wars movie with CGI’d Carrie Fisher in it.

The very first time we went to a “full service” movie theater was back in the early ‘90’s in Texas, and that concept was just getting off the ground, here anyway.

It was comically bad. I don’t remember the movie, but I remember the experience - you ever see those old TV shows where they show some seedy 1950’s-era burlesque/strip club? Small room, small stage up front, little round wobbly tables with a little candle in a red glass jar? Very sad-looking.

That’s what this place was like, and you could hear the traffic outside, and the screen was about the size of a big-screen TV today would be. We couldn’t enjoy the movie because it was basically a movie in a restaurant/bar, so the servers were constantly in and out, chatting, slamming plates down, refilling glasses…it was horrible! :laugh:
 
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