Still at It

I'm on cake #7 now. I'm not sure if I should keep going or quit while I'm ahead. Every day I'm eating the equivalent of two gigantic pieces of cake, all in little tastes. All in all, seven variations on a simple chocolate sheet cake is only knicking the tip of the iceburg. But then, a cake is a cake--right? Give twenty people the task of coming up with the ideal simple chocolate sheet cake and you will get twenty cakes.

That said, I think I'm realizing that I'm not as into Scharffen Berger cocoa powder as I thought. As a former employee, I have scads of the stuff around, so I'll keep on baking with it as needed. But today, as I poured boiling water over the Scharffen Berger cocoa powder and whisked it into a smooth paste, a hammy, almost smoky bacon-esque aroma rose from the bowl. At the Scharffen Berger factory the cocoa powder always seemed appealing, but perhaps because of the overall sensory overload of chocolate permeating the air. In the isolation of our lackluster kitchen, this is not the case. So we'll see how cake #7 turns out. Hey, do you need some chocolate cake? Leave a comment and I can hook you up. But I don't deliver.