Baking in Mexico

By now I've tried to bake a few things for my family here in Mexico and let me just say, it is a challenge. Today was a prime example.

It's my host brother's birthday today! He turned 17. The whole family went to Mexico City to get his gift (motorcycle gear), so I thought it would be fun to make a cake and surprise him when he got back! Good thought Courtney.

First I ran (literally, I finished up my run there) to the Bodega Aurrera, aka WalMart, to buy ingredients. I was wanting to try out a recipe I found on Pinterest that called for Greek yogurt, but alas, Mexico is not friendly with the Greeks. Nothing but the regular stuff. So then I settled on my second option, a jell-o poke cake. I found everything I needed, even some weird Cool Whip-ish stuff for the frosting, and was feeling pretty excited. And then I got home and we only had one egg! Poop. It was all right though because our maid, Martita, walked with me to a little store to buy some. Four pesos for three eggs! Not too shabs.

Cool Whip! ...Sorta.

So anyway, I made the whole mix and everything was good, poured it into our one and only cake pan, which happens to be for a bundt cake. How random is that? Haha. And then Martita informs me that the stove we normally use is out of gas! Here in Mexico people aren't hooked up underground to the gas like in the states. They have a big tank of it and when it's gone, it's gone and they have to have the gas truck come refill them. So our stove has been out of gas for a few days. Lucky for us though, we have another one! Our family has this super fancy kitchen with all stainless steal appliances and everything, but they never use it! Anyway, so I go to use the oven in the fancy kitchen. But guess what? It doesn't work. Big surprise there. So now I'm left with a bunch of cake mix and no way to bake it. What was I to do?

Don't you worry your pretty little heads, though. Courtney put her thinking cap on and found a solution. The microwave! We do kitchen activities in school but the only appliance we have is a microwave, so I've gotten pretty expert at cooking random things in it. Did you know you can make pancakes in the microwave? My family was pretty blown away by that one. And in addition to pancakes, you can make CAKE! Bam-o. Problem solved.

So I filled up like ten mugs and a plate and zapped those babies! Individual sized birthday cakes :)

But my work was far from done. Now I had to make the jello! This was actually relatively painless, except that we don't own a single instrument for measuring, so I have to make do. I figure a coffee mug is about eight ounces, though, so we go from there. So resourceful :) hahaha.

After I had made the jello, poured it on my cakes, and set those in the refrigerator, I set to work on the frosting. I did some research on google and decided that the easiest thing to do would be to just mix in some of the liquidy jello to the "cool whip" and call it good. So I did just that, put that in the fridge as well to set up, and went and took a shower. Then I came back, frosted everything, and voila!

The many shapes and sizes of the birthday cake.

It turned out quite all right if I do say so myself! Except that it wasn't until I finished everything that I realized that I had just made a bunch of pink cake for my 17-year-old brother. Haha sorry Chucho. I was just following my girly instincts! He's not back from Mexico City yet though, so I'll have to tell you what his response is.

So the point is, baking here is hard! Even when there is gas, it's a gas oven in Celsius, so that's different. Then normal ingredients are hard to find. Then you have no measurements. But it's ok! They're always really excited to have something weird and American even if it turns out sorta Mexi because that's all you can find. I can't wait to make normal things when I get home though! I will certainly know how to utilize a microwave if I need to!

Take advantage of all your American stuff and bake something! Right now! And then send me some.