I Can't? Oh Yeah? Watch Me.

There probably isn't much I hate more than being told I can't do something.  I'd tell you to ask some of my old therapists, but the ones who told me that I couldn't do stuff... Well, I fired them. 

Not that I'm irrational.  If someone tells me I can't do something and presents rational reasons, I might be persuaded, but to tell me 'You can't do that' and just assume I'll agree?  Yeah, that doesn't go over really well.  My answer...

Watch me.

So, over the weekend, I was looking for something to bake.  I had a box of cake mix, but I didn't want to make plain old yellow cake.  And I sure as hell didn't feel like baking a batch of cake cookies. Again.  Then I remembered I had a few butterscotch pudding cups in the fridge that we probably weren't going to eat.  And, knowing that people often put dry pudding mix into cake, I wondered whether I could just use the pre-made pudding. 

I went online to find out if it was possible.  First, I hit allrecipes.com - my go-to place for new recipes.  No one did anything with pre-made pudding, except for like parfaits and junk.  Then I gave Google a whirl, because ya know, if it's out there anywhere, it's on Google.  Not a recipe to be found for what I wanted to do.  So I typed in something like...

How to use pudding cups with cake mix.

And I stumbled across a forum where some poor woman asked the same question.  The answers she got back: No.  No, it'll be too wet.  There's no way to do it.

Oh yeah? thinks I.  Watch me.

So, I put the cake in a mixing bowl and thought about it for a minute.  Now the directions on the box called for 3 eggs, one cup of water, and a half cup of oil.  Pudding is already pretty wet, so I knew I needed to cut back on that somewhere. I added two eggs (because that's all I had in the house) and a quarter cup of oil.  Then I scooped in two pudding cups.  That didn't seem quite wet enough, so I added another.  Looking good, but still dry and that was my last butterscotch pudding, so, I went back to the box directions and got that cup of water ready.  As I blended, I added water until it looked about the consistency of any standard box mix.  I ended up using the whole cup, so it was perfect.

I poured it into the pan, put the pan in the oven according to the box directions and waited. 

I checked it at 25 minutes.  Still pretty wet in the center.  I checked it again about 7 minutes later.  The toothpick looked clean, the center was firm but not hard, and it was nicely browned.  I took it out and set it aisde to cool. 

When I went back to check it later, the damn thing had fallen down from its nicely curved top to pretty-well flat across.  Truth be told, my heart sunk a little.  I thought it was going to be dense and gross.  Screw it, I thought while I threw some stuff together to make a frosting to go with a butterscotch cake.  Worst that could happen is the texture is off.  I already knew it tasted good from licking the beaters. 

I slapped on the chocolate/butterscotch frosting I threw together and sent a little prayer to the baking gods.

Yep, it was flatter than a normal cake, but oh my god, it was the best cake in both flavor and texture that I'd ever eaten.  In fact, I had a piece last night and two today.  Even now, as bed time is approaching, that damn cake is calling me. 

And to those people who said it couldn't be done?? Eat my cake!

On second thought, forget I said anything.  Keep thinking you can't make this cake, and then it will be MINE, ALL MINE!  Bwa ha ha.

So, next time you want to try something and the world is telling you that you can't do it, give it a go anyway.  You might fall flat on your face, sure, but then again, you might end up with the best thing you've ever had.  And if it's not quite what you hoped, learn from the experience, so in the future, you can tweak your tries.  Sooner or later, you will succeed.

Oh, btw, if the person who told me I couldn't ever write a whole book happens across this... he can bite me.

;o)

So, your turn...  Ever do something after people told you that you couldn't do it?  Details, people, I want details.  I can't be the only one who's this bullheaded.  LOL