There are good things about cooking in a dorm: like I have a tap that runs boiling water, and its not my job to clean the floors. But then there's some not-so-great stuff.

21 times. That's how many times I ran up and down the three flights of stairs separating me from the kitchen. It took three trips alone to just get "all" of the stuff down, and then I started realizing what I'd forgotten: the vanilla, the mixing bowl, the other mixing bowl, the sugar, the cake mix, a spoon... and then even more trips to bring it all back, since cake takes up more space than the ingredients.

It was a ridiculous night, all in all. Usually I cook with my best friend (who splits the trips upstairs) but she's on an interview, which is the reason I was baking in the first place. In addition to the insane amount of running, I got a nose full of egg white powder (when, for whatever reason I thought sniffing powdered egg white would be a good idea) and realized I don't have any white sugar. Sure, I have 10 pounds of powdered sugar and two boxes of brown sugar, but no white. At that point I was so fed up that I just used the brown sugar, but that turned out to be really hard and no matter how long I microwaved it it still wasn't perfect, so I suspect my cake-eaters will be enjoying brown sugar clumps in their WASC; but the tiny bit I sampled tasted okay. To put the cherry on this lousy experience, when I set my hand mixer down (another peril of dorm life is the absence of mom's kitchen-aid that works so nicely at home) it fell off the counter. In order to save the thing (which was not cheap, despite its appearance, especially for a poor college student) I grabbed at anything I could: and caught it by the beater, saving the mixer but COVERING myself in royal icing. Awesome.

Ah the joys of dorm life! It's been a while for me, but remember a few fun cooking experiences! Just think, with all the exercise, you can have more cake!!!

Haha I think it says a lot about my dorm-life experience when there is no food in my room that *can't* be used for cake.

i'm sorry to hear that! i'm in college too so i feel your pain. i actually have a few papers tacked to my fridge with all the recipes i use the most and whenever i'm getting ready bake i use them as a check-list to gather the ingredients. it really helps! check and double check before you leave your room and use large bags to tote everything with you =D

21 times. LOL

Reminds me of my daughter, who lived on the 4th floor of her dorm, running up to me after her first semester yelling, "Look at my butt!" It was in very firm shape. *sigh* That was just the first of many weird encounters. Ah, college...

cake_architect-- your cakes are exquisite! How do you have time for that on top of an engineering degree, my goodness! I feel incredibly humbled. Also-- I tried to use a mental checklist tonight (I got roped into baking for the super bowl as well: I don't even know who's playing!) and I only had to run back for something I forgot twice. And one of those times I hadn't forgotten it, someone actually stolen the butter. (another peril of dorm life.) Hooray for overpriced on-campus convenience shops or my buttercream would have been ruined.