Today I was going to make a cake. A round one with a hole in the middle , like a giant polo.

It took me some time to find the safe place where I had left the recipe. ( complete with a list of how many cups of sugar etc equal how many grams etc. I don’t have scales.) I recognised  it among a pile of bills by the chocolate and oil stains.

Next I went off to the supermarket  and bought the ingredients  as I haven’t baked a cake for ages. There has been no need . A cake for one person is not much fun.

Having returned home I set out all the bowls, jugs and various ingredients  on top of the cooker. Not much work surface,  but I managed.

To save time I decided to whisk the eggs and sugar and melt the margarine in the microwave  at the same time.

Yesterday I made lasagne and melted butter in the microwave  with no ill effects. Today while whisking away there was a big bang from the other room . I rushed through and pulled open the door.Smoke billowed out.  The jug with the remains of the marge was lying on its side and everywhere else inside was dripping. What a mess!!

Luckily I’d boiled water to clean the utensils  so I did my best to clean the microwave. It was not easy.  ( It had been needing a clean anyways. )

I turned the fan on to help the smoke escape out the open door.

To be on the safe side I melted more marge in a pot this time  and carried on mixing everything together and put the mixture in the tin.

Then I turned on the oven function of the microwave  to heat up and closed the door. Within a minute it had filled with more smoke. That was a surprise.

I cleaned it again even more thoroughly  and started it up again. After a minute it had filled up with smoke again.

Meanwhile I had all the cake mix ready to bake.

I was just a bit fed up by now.

My ordinary gas oven burns most things. No way could I bake a cake in it.

However  I thought, ” Maybe if I made little cakes…..”

I was lucky to find a tin tray with 6 spaces and I had some paper cases. By turning the gas down as low as possible and putting the shelf right near the top I managed to eventually use up all the mixture and make 24 little cakes only slightly burned on the bottom.

By then  it was lunch time and discovering that I had run out of lentils to cook for lunch was only to be expected. 😕

On a happier note I thought that I would paint something to cheer myself up and actually enjoyed painting a seascape . I am quite pleased with it. I straightened the horizon in yesterday’s  one and it looks better now as well .

I’ve measured  the mat in front of the pellet stove and I have wood to make a frame to staple the hessian on to. Maybe I will do it…….

It’s  a bit windy outside tonight , but at least inside is smoke free. It took ages to clear.

Just had to jump up and shout at the little white cat who was climbing over my cat board. Have given it some catfood, outside.

Wine at last. Cheers 🍷🍷