If i knew you were coming i'd a baked a cake...

If i knew you were coming i'd a baked a cake...
Originally uploaded by mtstaffa.

In Japan they can do glorious things. They survive on meager portions of food. They build mini cars that seat a family of 5. They popularized Karaoke (or invented it, not sure yet), they can make swan statues out of a napkin and what Adam and i found out recently is that they have the ability to make a two tiered chocolate cake smothered in homemade icing right in their own microwave. (note that it is a microwave and not a macrowave as they should be called in the states). Im serious, Adam and i accepted the challenge of buying cake mix (sans icing) and "baked" a cake without an oven.

An old Japanese guy told me that Americans have ovens because they eat too much. There are no ovens in the homes here. There is something similar to an oven but it is the size of a shoebox. It is a mini gas grill basically but it is minuscule.

So here is how we "baked" a cake. We bought a tin and some tinfoil to build our own metallic model "oven" to put the cake mix inside of. We then made the batter and put everything in the microwave and turned it on. For how long we didnt know....why not?...well smarty, we didnt think there were directions for the feat we were attempting, and if there were it was in japanese. While the cake was "baking", we made the icing by hand. We bought some imported Hershey's chocolate and melted it with a tablespoon of water on the stove. Our first check of the cake was interesting to say the least. The sides were looking promising, but the middle looked like a vast pool of guck. It was a soupy mix that splashed when we removed the tinfoil makeshift oven from the microwave. We jokingly considered putting a bowl upside down in the middle, sinking it in the guck, and covering it with icing to get the desired cake-like effect. After a sip of our beers we decided to give it one more shot in the microwave. After a few minutes of laughter over what we were attempting we took out the cake and found it looked surprisingly well! We then were confused as to how to get it out of the tin. After that challenge was completed successfully we put it in the fridge to cool it off. After a few minutes we then (somehow) cut it in half with a butter knife and added the layers of our devilish icing. As a final touch Adam held the cake while i threw bits of nuts at the side and top of the cake.

In the picture, Adam is adding the icing to the first of the two tiers of cake. Watch out Martha, the boys of apartment 805 are coming to get you! We made a delicious cake for a Japanese friend's birthday using a microwave, a butter-knife and some tinfoil. Not bad.