The day I got the Urge. Or, What you can look forward to in your next visit to that nice hotel in Delhi.

Freshly Baked Cake(s) if the mood takes me.
Flat, sticky and sweet.
Felt I must share this note for posterity.
As Yogi Bear once said, “Son, this is what you must Not do”

It was a day when I felt like Eating cake, not Making it, but what the heck, it’s the thought that counts? (The day I felt like actually making it, I went as far as to organize all the elements that went into it – including
- an egg-beater which will run when I want it to (the human one I had is oft recalcitrant and prone to mood swings)
- a baking tin (2 eggs? 6 eggs? 8 eggs. Just in case I become a whiz at this) and
- Reams (for trial & error) of grease proof butter paper (Rs2 per sheet). More on the butter paper later.

So, this day when I felt like Eating cake, as opposed to felt like Making it (Mistake #1, since it is not in the skill but in the will), I fished every thing out of the respective recesses and referred to my three sources of recipes (mistake #2):
- a magazine article (which makes everything look easy and glamorous anyways) giving a 3 egg-with-butter recipe of a sponge cake,
- a highly skeptical Ma giving me a safe 1 egg-without-butter recipe for the self same sponge, and
- my Cookbook bible which outlines the principles and concepts of making sponge cake. Using any of three methods – whisking, creaming and melting.

Attempt 1: Ma’s method, followed it to the T. Only, forgot to grease the butter paper lining the tin.
On pouring the 1 egg batter in the 8 egg tin, I watched it spread itself to a miserably thin layer making it impossible to check for its springy sponginess if and when done.

I must add here, that my oven doesn’t mention whether it works in degrees centigrade or farenheit. By now I was past caring anyways. With my brain sufficiently addled, I was going by Gut Feel and the Years of Cake-Eating experience to guide me.

Monitored the cake till I saw it nicely brown along the edges – whoever said a watched pot never boils?
The chunk that came off with the fork that was poked in did not stick to the rest of the cake, hence I pronounced the batter not sticky, and figured it was done.
It was a stick jaw or a marangue depending on whether it was the center or sides that was de-papered. A bit eggy, but a good first attempt - given the learnings one could take away from it, I should be a pro at this now.

Determined Attempt #2 was a different piece of cake altogether :D designed to take the cake making experience to the next level. With self adjusted estimated proportions (mistake #3), I settled on a 2 egg-with-butter vanilla sponge cake, by the whisking method, where I decided half way down the mixing that I wanted a chocolate cake, added the chocolate powder and forgot to reduce the sugar.
I remembered to grease the grease proof paper this time round though.
Greaseproof butter paper: what a misnomer.
Of course, when I dutifully turned the 2-egg-cake-in-an-8-egg-cake-tin over a cooling rack type thing to cool, it stuck and had to be eventually peeled off it as well.

Yes, it is still in the fridge.