Is it worth the effort?

Just done my first baking since starting this blog, well to be precise I am half-way through making some caramel slice, sometimes known as Millionaire's Shortbread, and to be honest starting to thing that in this case it is more trouble than it's worth to make your own. Generally I am a huge advocate of 'homemade' being best but I think there are some things that are best left to someone else to make. Take Battenburg Cake for example - there is not much better to cheer you up when you feel a bit down than the glorious squares of yellow and pink sponge with a strip of marzipan holding them together, but the thought of actually making it myself is quite horrendous. I am a cook who likes to keep things simple - the fewer the ingredients and the less steps involved the better.

Anyway back to my caramel slice, it's one of my favourite cakes and frequently my cake of choice when in coffee shops and faced with an array of treats to choose from, but this is the first time I've ever tried to make it. A quick bit of research in my cookbooks found a recipe that looked fairly simple and only involved ingredients which I had in the cupboard, so when I got home from work tonight off I went. Unfortunately the recipe is in a cookbook produced by my parents' local sailing club and so hasn't been through the scrutiny and review that your standard recipe book recipe would go through, meaning that some of the instructions are a little vague - knead the butter, flour and sugar together (I opted for the easy option of throwing it all in the food processor and hoping for the best) and cook in a medium heat oven (I assumed 180 deg C). However the base seemed to turn out ok despite needing to stay in the oven for much longer than the recipe suggested. But then came the caramel layer - 6 minutes of stirring the recipe said. Hmmph, if only! 20 minutes of stirring, sieving (had a little accident when I didn't stir enough and had too much heat) and 2 dirty saucepans later I finally had something that vaguely looked like caramel. Slapped it on top of the base and now waiting for it to set so that I can add the chocolate layer which goes back to where I started - it all seems like a lot of bother for something that will no doubt be gobbled up in minutes. And I haven't even mentioned the trail of destruction that I've left for Mr Zoecakes to clear up in the kitchen... ;-)