Cake-tastrophe

Oscar and I made the trek down to the beach this weekend to celebrate my father-in-law´s birthday. We got a late start on Friday because Oscar didn´t leave the office until 9pm. He promised me that at the half-way mark we would stop for dinner. I had a feeling that there would be slim pickings for dinner and boy was I right. We were hoping to find a cute little restaurant nestled in a forgotten pueblo in Castilla-La Mancha but all we got was gas station after gas station. We had to stop for gas anyway so we bought a bag of potatoe chips and a coke to hold us over. It ended up being dinner since I dozed off shortly after, which was a good thing because nothing else ever came along.

My father-in-law, José, the birthday boy.

We took my in-laws out for paella on Sunday at Soqueta, a small restaurant in Oliva close to their beach house. We enjoyed fried calamari (Spanish style) and Arroz a banda. Arroz a banda is similar to paella but all of the shell fish come already peeled and diced so you don´t have to get your hands dirty. (I know Angela would love it because she doesn´t have to see the shrimp with the heads still on.) We had a nice, long lunch before heading back to Madrid. My father-in-law came back with us because he has to do a few errands in Madrid this week. Since I didn´t have time to make him a birthday cake before we left, I promised him one when we got back to Madrid.

Arroz a banda from Soqueta.

We didn´t end up getting home until after 10pm on Sunday but I was excited about making his cake. He requested chocolate - one I hadn´t tried to make yet in Madrid so this was the perfect opportunity. We decided to make cupcakes since they would be easier to bring back to the beach. I pulled out my recipe and went at it. Everything was going really well ... I had all the ingredients, the batter tasted right, timing was good ... I peaked in the oven close to the time they should be done only to find this:

Talk about a dissapointment. What went wrong? I´ve had some bad cakes in the past but this way by far the worst. I didn´t have time to freeze the flour or try to make Kate Flour but can I really only blame the flour for this one? What a disaster. I surprisingly took the defeat quite well. For those of you who know me, that is a big deal. The cupcakes went straight in the trash and I went to bed.

You win some, you lose some. Now, I will have to find use for the bowl of chocolate icing I have in the fridge ...

P.S. - I want to send a very special birthday wish to a very special friend - HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALISON!