Day 15 - Cake No. 2

I forgot to mention that on watch last night I made croissant dough. For Poseidon's Fourth Birthday today, we started with fresh baked croissants. I then kept the oven hot making a chocolate carrot cake. He wanted carrot cake. I wanted easy for at sea. I settled on buying a delicious looking Duncan Hines double chocolate cake and decided to shred some carrots into it. It was worth a shot. Apparently, my oven did not think so. While stoves are gimbaled at sea...ovens with heavy things obey a few simple physics laws: 1. Force = mass (cake batter in metal pan) x acceleration (rolling boat in heavy swells) 2. Objects in motion tend to stay in motion; objects at rest tend to stay at rest. Yep, force versus oven door = cake all over the galley.

The strangest thing is, I was typing the previous day's blog, and looked at my husband and said, "Please check and make sure the cake is still in the oven." Apparently, there was some urgency in my voice as he went. Right when he arrived, G-ma was flying out of the galley. If he had not been there to catch her, she would have had a serious head injury. They half landed/half squatted against the entry to Laralei's room. The cake came flying out of the oven right after. At least she is uninjured. Maybe now, three times later, she will listen when I tell her it is not acceptable to wash dishes inside underway. She slipped on her own dishwater. You wash outside in salt, only rise in the galley and dry. Both for dryness and water conservation. Major disaster #1 averted. Major crisis #1 now. Poseidon's birtday; no cake.

I have arrived as a baker. I looked at a couple of cake recipes and decided I did not like either of them. I made one up from scratch. After putting it in the oven, I wrote it out in quick chicken scratch, not my usual writing, before I forgot what I did. I now have a greasy piece of small paper off of my Amsoil notepad with a recipe for "Crystal's Chocolate Carrot Cake"...just like Nana used to have on pieces of notepad real estate agents used to leave at her door. It tastes really good too. I made the Ghiardelli mocha buttercream frosting from the inside of the 100% cocoa wrapper. Mmmmmmm (This time I used the trusty bungee cord to hold the oven door shut.)

Poseidon enjoyed his new Ninjago and Avengers legos, a swath of new books, a Captain America shield and the Iron Man 3 doll...ahem...action figure...set. Laralei got a Care Bear and two tiny My Little Ponies so she would stay out of his legos for a day. The day was a success in the end, and we had a great party at sea. :)

Position at Editing: 31.32.042N 136.17.079W @1734 8.7.13