Vintage Chiffon Cake

I'm having a bit of an issue with my houseplants.

I want them to be healthy. And beautiful. I have this dream of a house filled with lush, green-leaved plants dotted around the rooms, offering a cool sense of calm and respite from the endless hustle and bustle of the outside world. Well, that makes the pace of life of Cathays sound a little more frenetic than it actually is, but regardless: I want that oasis feel. I deserve it.

But try as I might, my plants won't play ball. They are like sullen, stroppy and po-faced teenagers, who refuse to dress appropriately or behave well in public. They form strange, uncomfortable poses regardless of how often I turn them, and seem unhappy in their earth-filled pots and canisters.

I am like the proverbial parent of children entering adolescence: on edge, anxious and stressed. How did this happen? And why to me?

We started off so well. I remember potting them up with such good intentions and an unusually positive outlook. They enjoyed their weekly dose of Baby Bio and reached happily toward the natural daylight pouring through the windows of the house we rented before moving here. Maybe the move angered them. All I know is that things aren't the same anymore.

Do you think Betty would be proud?

The money tree (stupid name) drops leaves like it were an Olympic sport, and the larger of two yukkas has foliage that is dying at the tips. I can do nothing to stop it. It depresses me every time I look at it.

What to do, readers. What to do.

This has nothing to do with anything, does it?

In other news, I found a vintage recipe for a 2 layer chiffon cake baked in regular (i.e. round) cake tins. So you should all be happy, even if I am not.

Sometimes, I think that the 'Oh well, sod the presentation, I just took this' shots of food are better.

It's not exactly like regular, tube pan baked chiffon cake. But it will do for all of y'all lazy ass, can't be bothered to git down to the store and pick up a tube pan-ned ass types.

Let me know how ya'll like it. We'll do Croatia soon, promise. Here, meanwhile, is the recipe for you all: