Riding and Baking

I had a busy but enjoyable weekend.  Since the grass tasks were already handled it freed me up to do other things.  One of those other things was making my mom’s chocolate cake recipe for Cindy’s birthday.  I bought the ingredients I didn’t have during my errand run and then started making the cake mid-afternoon.

Cake prep went smoothly.  I would up using my big Kitchen Aid stand mixer for the main cake mix which probably resulted in the ingredients getting better mixing than typical.  However with this cake the icing is the star of the show.  I bought a new double boiler just for the icing.  It too worked well, I would say the end product was one of the top 10% of the cakes I have made.

Saturday evening I took the V11 to Dunkin Donuts.  On the way back I rode through the nearby developments checking out the Halloween decorations.  There weren’t a ton to see but I enjoyed the ride regardless.

On Sunday morning it felt like I was spinning in circles trying to get small tasks done so I could get out the door.  I finally got down to Marco to do a hill test with my two Inmotion wheels, the V11 and the V12.  I parked by Indian Hill, the steepest and longest hill in Marco Island.  It was very interesting contrasting how both wheels felt going back and forth over the hill 10 times.  Part of the test was also monitoring wheel temperature during the stress test.  Both wheels passed the test but the V12 was clearly the winner with much more speed over the hills as well as having a top temperature 20 degrees cooler than the V11.

Late in the afternoon Cindy stopped over.  She had spent most of the day with Katie and DJ which was a fun way to spend her birthday.  We picked up food from Brooks Burgers, one of her favorites and enjoyed it at at the house.  Afterward we each had a piece of the cake after I sung a solo version of happy birthday to Cindy, something I am not sure I ever did as normally at least Katie would also be part of the process.  The cake tasted quite good, although both Cindy and I felt the side effects of the caloric bomb we ingested.  Despite the major change in our dynamic since her last birthday, I think overall Cindy had a good day which I was happy about.