simply put, people should not goad minzhi into making cakes telling her a certain recipe was so simple even she can make it. whereupon minzhi went out and bought ingredients for express purpose of making cake but without a shopping list and came home with all the wrong sorts of things. also, minzhi is incapable of following instructions. also, her kitchen is completely ill-equipped for cake baking. also, she is stubborn and compulsive and with her heart set on making something anyway and to do it today and to do it right now, she does.

this means pouring things directly out of the package without measurement and saying oh well that looks about right. this is not done even in any way that is approximately proportional. it also means pouring these things into a bowl so small it is no more than a high-minded cereal bowl and then reducing the amount of ingredients as the bowl begins fills up. since the later parts of the recipe calls for more ingredients. nontheless perseverance is the name of the game and she pours it into a glass casserole dish, slice up a peach and a mango and throws them on, and stick the unholy mess in the oven (which she did remember to preheat) and goes off to read.

the result, as might be expected: all muffin-crust on the exterior but within, not moist but soggy, and it was obvious that there was far too much yoghurt and not enought flour. licking the chopstick proved that it wasn't sweet either. minzhi remedies this by turning the cake over onto dinner plate, pouring a lot of honey on its underdone bottom, and then putting plate in the oven for another 15 minutes. cake now sweet and underside browned. final verdict: outer two-thirds passable as cake, inner third unmentionable in polite circles, fruit, good, four out of ten for effort.