Tweaking thought-less designs

Bad design usually sticks like a sore thumb. By design, I am not talking about IT-centric designs such as user interfaces for Blackberry, iPhone, etc. I am talking about design that is a part of what we interact with in our everyday lives - beds, sofas, doors, streets, and so on. Every element that we interact was designed by someone, for good for bad. Bad designs are easy to find, such as narrow streets, buildings with only one exit, etc.

However, design that is not so bad but at the same time could be better is not easy to find. It is more like an irritant. We know that something is wrong, but we can't quite place it. It may gnaw our minds for the few minutes before and after we interact with it and goes away till we interact with the same piece again. Recently, I came across such a design that prompted me to write this post. Now, I am not really ranting about the design (although blogs are rants in most cases). Instead, I am posting this to see if any of you who come over here have experienced such nagging as well and hopefully knowing that the nag has a reason may help you be more at peach - a noble goal indeed!

The design in question is simple - a restroom. Rather, the sign to a restroom. The picture below is the corridor in my office building that I rarely visit. By looking at it (the viewpoint from when you get into the corridor), can you figure out where the restroom is?

I had the same issue. While thankfully I was not in a hurry to reach the said destination, it did take me a wrong turn and some careful looking on either side to find the right place (the different gender rooms are on either side of the entrance).  Of course, there is a nice little universal sign in front of the door that indicates my destination. However, I could not see it until I was right in front of the door.

While this design is in general adequate and acceptable, it could have been made a lot better with just a simple tweak - make the sign perpendicular to the door so that it sticks out in the corridor (probably near the ceiling so that it does not hit someone in the face). This way, it will be fairly easy for someone to know where the restroom is without having to look at each and every door! It does not really cost much to make this change, but can make a difference in simple comfort.

Another example I have seen is the way doors swing in a cafeteria. For example, it's probably more useful to set up the doors such that you push when getting out of the cafeteria and pull when you are going in. This way, if you have your hands full with food, you just push the door. However, I have seen this being done the other way.

I am sure if we look into the software we write or use everyday, such simple to fix issues can be found in many places that only required a little extra effort to make a difference. Some good books to read in this regard are The Universal Principles of Design and The Design of Everyday Things. Hopefully it helps in increasing your attention to detail. It definitely helped for me.

Can you think of such minor annoyances for which you could see some simple fixes that would make just the difference required? Please post a comment.

Eggless Date Cake Recipe

It's rare to have a fairly large family event for me, especially when away from my home country and when most of my relatives are spread far and wide here. So, I was quite enthusiastic when we (my wife and I) invited a few of our relatives along with their parents for a nice family time. Since all of us were reasonable food enthusiasts, we wanted to make some good food for all. The appetizers (veggie shish kebab, Bombay Chaats - Sev, Bhel, and Pani puris, Watermelon Juice), and entree (mixed veg pilaf, mint-coriander-cucumber raita, and lemon rasam, and yogurt with flattened rice) were all sorted out. The issue came when we tried to come up with a good dessert. Most in the group did not eat egg, and we were finding it difficult to come up with one that did not have any.

Cookies were an option, but we had a kid in the group who was not too keen on it. I thought of making some cupcakes that I had tried earlier, but finding a good eggless cupcake proved more complicated than I realized. There were quite a few vegan cupcake recipes, but somehow they were not appealing.

So, while looking around in the Internet in the last minute, I came across, Madhuram's Eggless Cooking website.The site had a Date Cake which looked quite interesting, especially since we had a bunch of Mejdool Dates my wife had brought from Dubai on her stopover from India a month back. Upon reading the recipe, I found that the cake was based on a recipe from Shilpa, the author of Aayi's Recipes. I have tried a few recipes from this site a while back, especially the fruit cake, for pretty much the same reason (eggless dessert) earlier. The fruit cake was a huge hit and I was wondering if I can repeat the success again.

The recipe is quite simple. I slightly increased the quantity of the recipe mentioned in order to fit a large French White pan as follows.

Ingredients
24 - 30 Mejdool Dates (any other dates, preferably soft)
1 cup 2% milk (any other milk would technically work, including Soy, as Madhuram had tried)
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used Wesson Canola Oil)
2 tbsp chopped cashews
2 tbsp chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Soak the dates in milk for an hour or two. If the dates or milk is cold or still hard, microwave it for a minute. The original recipe called for an overnight or at least 3-4 hours of soaking, but I did not have the time and the dates were quite soggy within an hour itself.
2. Blend the dates with sugar in a blender till the dates are thoroughly mixed within the milk. Although I reduced the sugar compared to the original recipe, I found the final cake to be a bit sweet for my taste. If your dates are quite sweet, you might want to reduce the sugar by a tablespoon or two. 
3. Transfer to a mixing bowl
4. Add the vegetable oil and mix thoroughly. In the original recipe, Shilpa mentions that the cake comes out fine without the vegetable oil. Since this was my first attempt, I didn't play around too much with the low-fat version, although I did reduce the quantity relative to the original recipe. You might want to reduce it further (probably in the second attempt!)
5. Mix the flour and baking soda separately and slowly add the combined ingredients to the wet ingredients in the mixing bowl. Add slowly and stir constantly to ensure no lumps are formed during the process
6. Add the chopped nuts to the mix
7. Grease a baking dish with oil and pour in the mixture.
8. Pre-heat the oven to 350F and bake for 30 - 40 minutes until a knife or toothpick inserted at the center of the cake comes out clean.
9. Cool in a cooling rack for an hour or so before attempting to take the cake out of the dish.

My relative gave a useful tip. Instead of greasing the dish, you can line the dish with aluminum foil and pour the mix on top. This way, you can simply remove the foil once the cake cools, enabling it to come off easily. I haven't tried this yet, but can see the logic in it.

For decorating the cake, I did a combination of both the recipes. I roasted some almonds in a skillet and placed it on top of each piece. In addition, I also prepared a frosting to go with the cake, especially for the kid. However, I chose an orange frosting instead of a butter cream frosting, since orange goes well with dates, as per my trusted Flavor Bible. 

Here's my recipe for the Orange frosting modified from this frosting recipe.

Ingredients
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp orange zest
1/4 cup orange juice, preferably freshly squeezed (might as well, since you need a fresh orange for the zest!)

Directions

1. Pour the whipping cream in a bowl. Keep the bowl along with the whisk (or the blades of an egg beater) in the fridge for 20 minutes or so (or 5 minutes in the freezer if you are short of time)
2. Whip the cream to form soft peak (the cream should form a semi-thick consistency). This will take about 5-10 minutes of vigorous whisking
3. Add in the orange juice, sugar, and zest, and whisk further for a few more minutes till the mixture forms hard peaks (or thickens)

Initially I misread the instructions and added the juice and sugar before keeping in the fridge. While this didn't ruin anything, the frosting was not too thick, either because of this or because I didn't whisk long enough. In addition, once the frosting is done, either use it immediately or keep in fridge until further use. This is especially crucial for this frosting since orange juice is acidic in nature and if left at room temperature, will curdle the milk (which happened for my first batch!).

Finally decorate the cake with the frosting any which way you like. You can see the final creation below (thanks to Shruthi for the design). Needless to say, the kid was quite happy to see his name on the cake and more importantly, the cake turned out to be delicious.

So, one big thanks to Shilpa and Madhuram for sharing and re-sharing this recipe. Even if you are an eggitarian, this is still a great recipe to try and I can assure you that it will be loved by kids, and they won't even know that it's healthy!