All I Want For Christmas

...is a Kitchen Aid Mixer

The recipe I'm about to share, is my FAVORITE recipe for my favorite dessert. When I was in high school, the only restaurant I knew that served this heavenly dessert was Chili's. But now it seems that more and more restaurants are putting out their own version of this dessert.

Chocolate Molten Cake
from Delicious Shots

8oz Bittersweet chocolate

8 tablespoon butter (1 stick)

plus more for ramekins

3 eggs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Generously butter four 6 ounce ramekins.

Place the prepared molds on a baking sheet and set aside. Melt the chocolates and butter in a double boiler. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until pale, about two minutes, beat in the vanilla. Stir in the egg mixture into the chocolate and then add the flour, mix well. Divide the batter among the prepared ramekins and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, the edges should be firm and set but the center will still look a little wet. Serve immediately with vanilla bean ice cream. You can serve them in the ramekins or run a knife around the edges to loosen and invert onto dessert plates.

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Doesn't it look mouthwatering?

In order for us to make this dessert (or any dessert for that matter) we will need a multitude of tools and appliances.

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But with the technology we have right now, processes can be done faster and more efficiently. Just like the Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer, which according to the video can do more than just mixing cookie and bread dough, but can also make ice cream, and pasta.

Video Credit: [1]

My mom's friend told her, "Once you have a Kitchen Aid, you're never going to need anything else." And right now, this is at the top of my Christmas Wishlist.

But how exactly do we know what all of these tools are for? A type of information that Gibson specified in his approach, is that of AFFORDANCES. These are information that indicate what an object is used for (Goldstein, 2010). So when we perceive an object, we do not simply perceive it's shape, size and color, but we also get information about how the object can be used. So when you look at a cake server such as this:

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you see that it is silver, with a carved handle and it has a triangular top, with one serrated edge. More importantly, you see that this handle is where you hold it, and that you use the serrated side to cut the cake. You also figure out that top part is flat so that you can easily slide it under the piece of cake. This information guides our actions and behaviors, which in this case is to use the cake server to get a piece of cake.

Donald A. Norman, a cognitive scientist, wrote a book that helped popularize the notion of affordances. 

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Below are a few examples of affordances according to Norman:

• Plates (on doors) are for pushing
• Knobs are for turning
• Slots are for inserting things into
• Balls are for throwing and bouncing

According to Norman, when affordances like these are "taken advantage of, the user knows what to do just by looking; no picture, label or instruction needed."

Affordances play a big role in how we perceive our environment. When we are confronted with unfamiliar objects, affordances provide us with cues as to how the object is probably used.

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References:

Goldstein, E.B. (2010). Sensation and perception (8th ed). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage.

Touretzky, D. & Tira-Thompson, E. (2008.) Affordances. Retrieved from http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/academic/class/15494-s07/lectures/affordances.pdf