TWD: rum drenched vanilla cake

Several years ago, I had a revelation.  I was mid-lunch, eating while working at my desk, probably in an effort to get everything done so that I could go home earlier, I decided to become more spontaneous.

Of course, I am an engineer.  I am systematic.  I like plans.  When plans change, or people unexpectedly show up, it can take me a bit to regain my composure.  I love knowing what is going to happen and why.  I think they put is through some sort of class freshman year turning us into these machines which expect the world to run in a careful, precise, controlled manner.  Hah.

So, being the observant person that I am (and anybody who has known me for a while will recognize the sarcasm the first part of this sentence was drenched in), I quickly identified the problem and found a solution.  After all, I am an engineer.

The solution, of course, was to become more spontaneous.  More random.  To force myself to adapt, to change my plans on a moments notice.  To stretch myself to the very limits of my being.  What did I do?  Right then and there, I started.  I ate my corn…randomly.  Not side to side.  Not in nice neat circles trending from the left to the right side of my cob.  But randomly: a bite here, a bite there, and so on.  After all, I was in the middle of my lunch and a girl has to stay on schedule!

Seriously, though, I have made efforts since that day to expand my flexibility so that when disaster strikes and things do not go my way I am able to cope.  I think it is working.  Take, for example, my efforts in making this cake.

First, I have all of my dry ingredients mixed together when I open the refrigerator to realize I have only 3 eggs.  The recipe calls for 6!  No worries, I can easily halve the recipe by splitting the well mixed dry ingredients into two parts by weight.  Done.

Then: horror of horrors!  My cream has gone bad!!  This really put a damper on things.

Luckily, I quickly regained my composure and realized the beauty of the situation.  There I was, equipped  with two equivalent bowls of my dry ingredients, perfect for experimentation.  If something went wrong, I could pick up some cream when I headed to the store for more eggs.  This was a low stress kitchen experiment if I had ever heard of one!  The fix was a simple sub of an equal part (by volume) yogurt for cream.

It worked!  The cake cooked up nicely, received rave reviews, and (!) had no further complications.  This cake was a winner by itself or served alongside some fresh berries.  Great choice, Wendy!

From simple corn on the cob revisions to baking adaptations, I would say I have come a long way with my flexibility!