long range ammo MiniBoy Mark I

[saefroch]

Now for Tasting and Judgement...

[MrCrowley]

Grr, the self-rasing flour didn't arrive today. Hopefully I can do some baking on Thursday.

[saefroch]

I have a suggestion about that stuff: Hide it away somewhere and forget about it. It'll be a huge find every time you discover you still have some, and you'll have no doubt found or come up with a new recipe to try when you do.

[Insomniac]

I only purchased self-rasing flour once. It was a food-grade powder from a pharmacy, though I'm not sure why people take flour on its own. Regardless, I ended up wasting the last of mine. Threw it in a mate's fireplace to see how fast it would cook. Made a nice sparkly purple loaf, and ate through the wood. Fun times.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

All this talk of "cooking" is reminding of Breaking Bad, if you haven't watched it yet check it out.

[youtube][/youtube]

I normally detest American TV series with a passion, but this one I really like.

[MrCrowley]

Don't remind me, I've been waiting the last two hours for the season finale

[MrCrowley]

Self-rasing flour arrived today, storing it in a zip-lock bag in a small cardboard box in a large empty draw.

[saefroch]

That won't make a difference, it'll still clump, the darned stuff. JSR might have a solution to that though... but for me it's never been much of an issue, you dissolve it in the batter anyway.

[MrCrowley]

I'm still unsure as to how to bake it as I can't bake inside. I have a decent heat gun I could use by placing it in a vice, blowing air upwards, and holding a small disposable cooking pan over it. I know it would be incredibly dangerous to use the heat gun directly on to the batter so this is the only alternative way I can think of.


By the way, I understand brown sugar is preferred? That's all we have at home so it would be convenient.

[saefroch]

I've never used brown sugar in a cake, so good luck!

Why not use a stove inside? Baking a cake mostly smells like... cake? That is to say the ingredients, my nose never detects any reactions going on (though there are for sure), and a standard overhead vent fan takes care of any fumes quickly.

If that's not an option, the heat gun should be just fine. Just be aware the sugar melts quickly once you hit the melting point.

[myinisjap]

I have cooked quite a lot of cake inside my house. Somewhere around the ten pounds range. (Cake is awesome to have while paintballing ) It smells like candy cooking. (warning it will make you hungry) I have always used white sugar in my cake.

[Insomniac]

Yes, smells like candy. I disagree with saefroch in that there's much in the way of chemical reactions taking place... perhaps some localised vapourisation of the sugar, but you're really just melting the components together. Unless you reach the heat of decomposition of one of the ingrediants.

I'm not sure how it would work, but perhaps a water bath would be useful? You can always simmer at a low heat once it's molten to help dry off any water vapour it absorbs. The big no-no is burning the cake, as even a tiny flake that gets too hot can set off a chain reaction and burn the whole lot. You can't eat burnt cake. You do get a bit of warning when that happens though... you'll see or hear a fizzle or smoke, if that happens just step back. It's not worth sustaining burns for the sake of cake. Wear goggles and leather gloves if you want to be safer.


By the way, if you want to keep your flour dry and not clumping, stick it in a plastic bag with a more hygroscopic substance. You can buy silica for this purpose at supermarkets, it's used as a cheap dehumidifier for the home. Eg Damprid (which is calcium chloride, not silica).

This guy uses NaOH, which seems to be effective but you've got to be careful with such corrosive chemicals. I'd stick with the calcium chloride.

[youtube][/youtube]

[MrCrowley]

Cheers for the tips guys.

I reckon a 25 second flight time for 4000m (assuming it goes that far) is reasonable, you think? That's an average velocity of 160m/s. If my testing with sand-buried-cake doesn't work out great, next best thing would be eating upon launch of the projectile, with a spotter or two up high on the dunes it could work alright.

By the way, if you want to keep your flour dry and not clumping, stick it in a plastic bag with a more hygroscopic substance. You can buy silica for this purpose at supermarkets, it's used as a cheap dehumidifier for the home. Eg Damprid (which is calcium chloride, not silica).

Silica sachet from a shoe box be alright?

[Insomniac]

Well, I'm not sure if that will be enough dessicant, but if you've got one on hand chuck it in, it shouldn't hurt. Unless the flour is the more hygroscopic chemical, but I doubt that.

[saefroch]

I've ALWAYS observed a colour change when cooking a cake, except when I add a significant amount of water (here I mean like 1mL for about 500mL of cake). It's always been maillard reactions I suspect, but it results in a color change that varies from dark brown like chocolate to a light yellow if not cooked for long with a bit of water added. Somehow the water affects the colour change, so I figure it must participate in the reaction. I suggest doing some experimentation to determine what kind of cake works best for what you need.

Inside the sachet it may not be enough, but I'd chuck it in anyway. Might want to add more. I know there's always damp-rid somewhere in my house, you should see if you can grab some.