La Torta

 Yesterday was my friend Sarah's birthday.  Since you can't make your own cake on your birthday I offered to make it.  No one knows why. I have never made any sort of cake or anything in my life without a box.  Brownies? No. Cake? No. Pie? Absolutely not!  The closest I come to baking in Italy was the time when I made a box of Funfetti for our American party. The word "funfetti" has now become my roommates favorite word. Luckily for me though, Fabio was home.  I have seen my roommates make a cake before and they even made one for me on my own birthday so it couldn't be too hard. Right? If 8 guys could make a cake, why couldn't I?  So I set to it with the help of Fabio.  He sent me to the store to get the ingredients that we didn't already have: cacao, milk, eggs, and the best ingredient Nutella.  So I was already a little relaxed, if the cake itself sucked, maybe the nutella would save it. Then I got to the store.  There were 3 kinds of cacao. Which one did I want? I went to grab my phone.  Perfect, I forgot it it home.  Smart. Now I just had to guess. Later I would find out that I picked the right one.  Then after waiting in line at the check out for about 15 minutes (anyone who has been to COOP, the local cheap grocery store, can relate) I realized that I might need a pan to cook it in.  But Fabio didn't mention anything.  Did that mean we had some at home left over from the last time someone made cake?  I bet.  But then images of the 

morning after New Years Eve came flashing through my mind.  Okay, Ellen.  They threw away picture frames, lamps, chairs, a television, pictures that used to be on the wall, clothing and even a garbage can itself.  What made me think that a tin baking dish would have been left behind?  Just to be safe I got out of line, walked all the way to the back corner and grabbed a tin.  Just in case.  When I got home Fabio was very proud that I had remembered to get the tin.  Lets just say, after New Years we are a little short on supplies.  So for the next long, drawn out 5 minutes, I measured.  I thought this process was going to take me hours.  But literally 5 minutes later, I was stirring away and was done!  Easy!  For those of you who would like to replicate what later became a masterpiece (see picture below) here is the recipie:

250 g of flour

150 g of sugar

75 g cacao

300 ml of milk

1 packet of lievito (16 g of baking powder)

Jar of Nutella

powdered sugar

After I mixed it all, Fabio had put butter on the pan and I poured it in.  Then I just shoved it into the over at 190 degrees Celsius and let it cook.  Thank god Fabio set a timer or else it would have been doomed.  I promptly went to my room and started studying (aka watching Sex and the City season 2) and completely forgot.  Fabio must have known that was going to happen when he left and set the timer. It was perfect.  I took it out (without oven mitts because we are currently without those too) and let it cool so that I could slice it in half and add the nutella.  Let just saw that my first cake was a hit!  Everyone loved it.  The only thing missing from the top of the cake were candles.  So after we sang happy birthday to Sarah we held a lighter over the cake and had her blow it out! Overall, it was a success.  And now I know how to bake!  Julia Child, watch out!

Another photo in the red room.  This is becoming tradition every dinner party.