It’s winter break from school and I was lucky enough to be able to go to Argentina. We spent a week down in Southern Patagonia checking out icebergs, glaciers and penguins.
We saw some of the most beautiful nature I had ever seen in my life. We also saw some of the worst weather. I guess it’s what I should’ve expected given how close we were to Antarctica.
On one particular day, when the wind howled down the streets and drove clouds down around the mountains, all but hiding them from sight, we decided to call it a “resting day” and stay in the hostel. Maria, the friend with whom I was traveling, wanted to fight off cabin fever by baking. It had been two weeks since I’d baked anything so I was all over that plan. I asked what she wanted to bake specifically and got the following response: “something complicated with a lot of steps. ” Hmm. Ok.
With no Internet and no cookbooks, it was going to have to be a made-up cake recipe. Which, when I saw the random collection of groceries to be had in the local grocery story, would have been the case anyways.
Does this town look likes it has a supermarket? Nope.
What flavor cake do you want? “Chocolate.” Nestle cocoa drink mix would have to do the trick. (Yes they keep the chocolate by the toilet paper. I don't know what that's supposed to mean.)The only milk to be bought came in enormous sacks. Yogurt would have to be the moistening ingredient. There weren’t enough plain yogurts left so we had to go with strawberry yogurt.
Oh and we would probably need a leavening ingredient. Why oh why did I never bother learning how to say “baking powder” while I was in Spanish class?? Some digging through a spices bin brought out a bag of whitish powder that looked appropriate. I wondered secretly whether we would be baking a chocolate wafer instead of a chocolate cake.We brought our ingredients back to the hostel where we mixed them all together in a bowl, poured them in tins (throwing some sliced plums on top to pretty things up) and then realized to our dismay that there was no oven. Luckily, the nice front-desk lady offered to let us use the barbecue grill to cook/bake/grill our cake.
Thus was born the Grilled Chocolate Strawberry Cake with Plum Topping.
However, our worries about the cake being a failure faded away as the smell of warm, dark chocolate filled the entire hostel.
We shared with everyone in the hostel and, judging by the speed with which the (surprisingly) delicious cake disappeared, we should never have worried in the first place!
2 individual sized cream yogurts (ok 1.5 because we ate half of the first one)
2 individual sized strawberry yogurts
3 eggs (Separated with the whites beaten until frothy in a separate bowl)
1 package chocolate drink mix
a few handfuls of flour
6 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon baking powder
Mix yogurts and egg yolks and melted butter in one bowl.Mix flour, chocolate powder and baking powder in another bowl.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients being careful not to over mix.
Gently fold in the egg whites.
Pour into tins.
Add the plum slices.
Sprinkle top with some extra sugar to make it crackly.
Place on a nearby grill at the lowest temperature for about an hour.
Beautiful! I miss you!
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