This afternoon I decided to bake a lemon ricotta cake. With the sugar and butter creamed, the egg yolks added, the lemon juice & rind as well as the flour combined, I realised I needed to beat the egg whites. Unfortunately I’d just been using the electric mixer so it was covered in batter. Instead of washing the beaters and taking the time to carefully dry them (any trace of water the the egg whites won’t stiffen) I grabbed out the whisk and thought I would give it a go. You understand the reasoning here right? I was too lazy to wash the electric beaters and I thought it would be easier to hand whisk the egg whites. And in about 5 minutes I had perfectly whipped snow white froth and a thorough workout. The cake didn’t fare so well in the oven. After cutting off the base it tasted fine although it was a bit dry. Fresh raspberries from the markets made up for it though.
Under the Mango Tree 
Yah, Ive done the hand beating thing too – thinking it was the lazy way out of a situation and realizing about 5 minutes in that it wasn’t.
But, when it comes to cake, I’m all in. Any effort necessary.