Elevenses with Tanya

Once a week or so Fiona and I have tea with our friend Tanya. Today we planned to get together for elevenses. In preparation for the tea party I thought I'd make these yummy sounding ginger-lemon cakes that I found in one of my cook books. Turns out I should have just gone to the baker down the road!!

I followed the instructions, and definitely used the right amounts of ingredients, etc, but by the time I was done, the 'stiff dough' that I was meant to have was a bit floppy. Still, I hoped for the best, and plopped lumps of it onto a baking tray, as directed. I set the timer for fifteen minutes and waited for the magic to happen...

About 5 minutes in, the kitchen looked a little hazy... I cleaned off my glasses, but it was still hazy, so I had a peek in the oven. Clouds of smoke were released, and I quickly opened the windows and pointed the fan out the way to try to get rid of the smoke before it set off the smoke detector and woke Fiona. Luckily, crisis was averted. And there seemed to be some kind of spill in the oven responsible for the smoke, rather than the cakes.

Another five minutes passed, and I thought I'd better check on them again, and to my horror, they looked like they'd passed 'done' and entered 'char-broiled'. Whoops. Not only that, but they were much smoother and flatter and less appetizing looking than the picture...

And their bottoms didn't look quite right...

Still, I hoped for the best. Fiona woke up from her nap, and Tanya arrived, and I put the kettle on. Fiona was looking a little peckish...

The cakes were ok after some burn removal. They were a little dry too, but butter helped with that. Fiona enjoyed hers, and even insisted on eating the burned bits that I cut off mine. Funny girl. After she was finished, she sprinkled the crumbs in her hair.

Luckily, in addition to the questionable cakes, Tanya had brought some incredible flourless chocolate cake. It was the richest, most decadent chocolate cake ever, and put my sad little cake rocks to shame!

Thanks for the cake Tanya, and thanks for a fun tea time!