Cupcakes.

What is it about cupcakes that is just so much more exciting than cake?

As many of you know, my oven and I are not friends. The issue was never really resolved. The repairman finally admitted that my oven did not perform correctly, and sheepishly installed a new thermostat, but it only somewhat fixed the problem. Rather than being anywhere from 25-100 degrees inaccurate, it now seems to stay around 50 degrees hotter than the temperature I set it to. Oh well... I can live with this and I got tired of fighting it. I think the main problem is that it is a bottom-of-the-line appliance.

So, back to cupcakes.... Despite my lack of fondness for my oven, I was recently inspired to bake. You see, I found the perfect recipe, and I just had to try it. It was a recipe for Earl Grey Cupcakes. How amazing is that?? To a tea lover who is married to an even bigger tea lover, this was very exciting. I was  excited just thinking about it, and had to go out and purchase the ingredients.

Now, I have to admit... I have never made cupcakes from scratch. Ever. Betty Crocker is my friend. So this was a new endeavor for me. However, even though the process took way longer than I anticipated, I think they turned out really well and were super tasty.

Oven Saga, Cont.

Yes, my oven saga continues. The repairman came yesterday and again "fixed" my oven. And by "fixed" I mean looked at it briefly, recalled the last time he looked at it, and said that it was working just fine.
I wasn't at home when he came by. When you live in an apartment complex the repairman can just let himself in whenever. I am thankful for the extra bolt on the door...
If I had been at home, I would have pointed out something new in the behavior of my stove:

Notice the two knobs on the far right and far left. They control the two front burners. They were both set to High a the same time and this photo was taken about 15 minutes after they were turned on. Notice anything funny? They should both be bright red, right?
In reality, the front right burner was barely warm. I turned it off then back on again... Where the element plugs in, it sparked a few times.  A third time I turned if off then on again and it heated up normally. But it is far from normal.
So now I'm having problems with the oven AND the stove top.
The repairman tried to tell me before that my oven was behaving normally, and that even if he replaced it with a brand new one it would still work the same. Okay, prove it. Can I have a new oven?
I will be going up to the office tomorrow. The folks in the office are great, and when I detailed my oven problem before they agreed that it was unusual. We just need to get the repairman on our team. But right now... I feel rather insulted by him to be told that my oven works fine when I've put in a repair request twice, soon to be three times.

Normal, inaccurate oven.

Things continue to go well in our new place. I don't yet have anything hung on the walls, but besides that the house it mostly settled. Books are on bookshelves, curtains are hung, and the fridge is full again. Being currently unemployed has given me plenty of time for getting thungs taken care of at the house. Everything is coming together quite well, all except for one little problem I've run into. Suddenly all of my dinners that I cook in the oven are burning. Recipes I've been making for years without any problem are now turning out all wrong and burning when I still have 15 minutes left on the clock. So I decided to do a little bit of investigating. On this particular recipe, I set the oven to preheat to 375 degrees.

I bought an inside-the-oven thermometer to find out the actual temperature of the oven. When the preheat light turned off, I looked at the thermometer which accurately said the inside temperature was indeed 375 degrees. But wait a few more minutes.... When I looked again about 15 minutes later, the inside temperature had gone up to a whoppin' 450 degrees!

I submitted a maintenance request to have someone take a look at this. Yay! Someone was going to come and fix my oven so that I no longer burn things! Or so I thought....

He hardly even looked at it, but started off trying to explain things and cut me off every time tried to tell him what I had done with the oven and how it was responding. He told me that ovens get hot and that the temperature can fluctuate.

Gee.... Ovens get hot?? Thanks for that earth shattering information.

He could have been honest and given me an answer like "Hmm... That's odd... I don't know why it's getting that much hotter than the temperature you set it at." But instead he had the audacity to tell me that it was normal, making me look stupid, and making me seem high maintenance to want such a crazy thing as an accurate oven.

I cannot believe that this is normal. If it is normal, why have I never had this problem with any other oven I have used?

I think I will bake him some burnt cookies to thank him for all of his help today.