Chronicling Baking a Cake in France

I figured this would make an interesting blog post, especially since I might not have time to write one tonight since Emma should be coming (keep your fingers crossed that the dumb volcano in Iceland keeps its hole shut). 

It is currently 12:13. I am baking a chocolate drop cake in Europe. Unfortunately, finding all the ingredients wasn't enough. I need to find the conversions since they apparently don't use "cups," "teaspoons," and the rest of that here. They use grams, which are a unit of weight and not volume. I've been finding conversions on my laptop, which is now an instrumental part of cooking. How do Europeans bake anything??

So far, I have sifted the flour, the baking powder (levure), and the salt together. I am currently trying to figure out how many grams are in a cup of butter. They just have a huge hunk of butter here, and the package says it's 250 grams. WikiAnswers says there are 225 grams in a cup of butter. I don't like eyeballing things, but then again, that's what I did for the salt and baking powder. This cake is not going to work. I haven't even attempted to use the hot fudge instead of the chocolate syrup yet.

12:18 - I've hacked the giant chunk of butter into little pieces and am now searching for a plug for the mixer. It's a hand mixer and I really hope the beaters work right...when I get home, I am going to have a strong desire to cook just so I can get this right.

12:25 - the mixer laughed at me and stopped working. Too bad Mme De La Taille and Pierre both left a few minutes ago. Why won't it work?

12:30 - Nothing is working. I may have to give up, but that seems like a waste of a whole lot of butter (and possibly a mixer).

12:35 - Examining the mixer. It doesn't look bent out of place, the beaters come out like they're supposed to. I have absolutely no idea why it just won't turn on. Maybe it hates Americans?

12:40 - Out of desperation, I am now trying to cream the butter and the sugar with a spoon. Strangely enough, it doesn't seem to be working...

I'm giving up on the blog. Paola is coming and hopefully she can help me.

2:10 - The cake is now in the oven. The reason the mixer didn't work was because of the plug. It wasn't me and I guess it doesn't hold a grudge because I'm not French. Paola helped me with conversions and translations, "because she's the most amazing person ever" (that's what she told me to write) and also a hospitality major. The cake should be out before we leave for a Japanese tea ceremony down the road, and hopefully the drop works. I, for one, am just glad it's over. I will post a picture of the cake (if it looks nice). If not, too bad.