A Bad Day

It was not a good day. This is yesterday we’re talking about. First of all, it has been raining since I can’t even remember when. Let me try: I know it was not raining when we went ice skating on New Year’s Day, which would be last Saturday, but I’m quite certain it’s been raining since. The lake behind the house across the alley grew from half the yard at breakfast to the entire yard by the time we got home, and our own yard is well on its way to a good-sized pond.

So there’s the rain. Then there was grimness of work. Then there was my house which seems to have become a disastrous pit o’ debris. Then there was the failure of an errand designed to produce happiness. Then there was the kind of general plunge in self-esteem during which everything one does and is becomes a sinkhole of worthlessness. And did I mention the rain?

It was impossible to be professionally productive in such a funk, so I emailed back and forth with K, surfed the internet, called S at work to moan about my misery, and watched the rain. I really did: I watched the rain and wondered if it would ever stop raining and whether I would feel better if it wasn’t raining and how I would ever find out if I would feel better if it wasn’t raining if it wouldn’t stop raining. Then I realized there was only one solution: another Nigella chocolate cake, to be specific, Honey Chocolate Cake, with marzipan bees (I would have taken a pass on the bees, but E insisted).

It was a lot less stressful than the Quadruple Chocolate Loaf Cake--aside from the part where I couldn’t remember whether I’d added the flour. It’s quite attractive, though it would look a tiny bit better if I’d remembered to sift the confectioner’s sugar into the glaze instead of just dumping it in and thus leaving miniscule clumps and bumps all over the glazed cake. The bees are positively adorable, thanks to M and S (E decided that painting the stripes on with chocolate glaze was too hard for her, though she did a great job of shaping little bee bodies out of yellow marzipan).

How did it taste? I don’t know. First it had to bake for an hour, then it had to cool completely which took about two hours, then Nigella said we should wait at least an hour for the glaze to harden, so we never got around to eating it. I’ll let you know.