Things I have been making

Hurray for a pleasant restful day, in which I chatted with friends and 2 out of 3 faraway kids.

I finished the purple socks and cast on a new pair immediately in a different Zauberball yarn, softer but also a little splittier.

Pete asked if I would bake a Madeira cake. I wasn't sure how much the kids would like it, because it's a little old-fashioned. I tend to make cakes that are fluffier. And this one didn't even rise very high. It's a Nigella Lawson recipe and I think it's under-leavened. I'm not sure how she got the picture in the cookbook with the amount of leavening in the recipe, but life is full of mysteries. In any case, I was not serving it to Paul Hollywood, and so no one but me commented on its un-domed top. The kids thought it was perfect.

I went in search of American recipes to see if my leavening suspicions were warranted, and I found another of life's small mysteries. Converting British baking recipes is a bit of an art because their baking powder is different from ours. "Martha Stewart," said I to myself. "Sounds like a trustworthy source for an American version. I'll check out her recipe."

"Huh," I said to myself, "there is no leavening at all in her recipe. That sounds disastrous!"

And lo, there are a number of angry reviewers saying, "This was disgusting! This was an expensive buttery brick! If I had smacked my neighbor upside the head with this cake it would have ended our years-long feud over the overgrown property-line forsythia!" Much to my surprise, there was also a contingent of happy reviewers, saying, "What's the matter with you whiners that you couldn't bake this easy-peasy cake? It was delicious and perfect!"

So...were the reviewers in group B using self-raising flour by mistake? If so, wouldn't it have been too salty, since the recipe calls for a half-teaspoon of salt? Or...is unleavened cake a thing? I am usually a to-each-her-own kind of baker, but I have to say that would be a weird and penitential kind of cake. Way back in 2002 I made my second child a third birthday cake in which I failed to notice that I was using all-purpose flour where the recipe called for self-raising flour. So I can tell you from sad experience: cake is better with leavening.