sigh I started today saying: “I will make a black forest cherry cake today.” I bought all of the stuff I needed (Actually, some of that took place yesterday), and today I got started. Hey, it’s a cake. I told my family I’d make them one, and this one… fell apart a bit. I patched it together with the whipped cream, didn’t even bother to make any frosting. Whoops, we’re out of whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Cake 2: Well, it’s better, I suppose, but I um… mixed in some red food coloring with the whipped cream b/c red = cherry. Whoops, it was a tacky pink. I then made some frosting. Chocolate. Uh-oh, my recipe for butter frosting makes it too light of a chocolate. Whoops. This one looks like crap too, b/c I’ve got pink mixing with light brown and ugh. Go to store b/c out of buttermilk, whipping cream, powdered sugar, and cherries. Also decided to pick up some pre-made fudge frosting. 3rd try. I lose a layer due to breaking apart, but I moved on: I had 3 more. Close enough. I then spent 10 minutes with a pastry bag and my frosting because the cake was too fragile to use a spatula thing. Oh well.
Trip to Walmart for cake goodies: 18 dollars.
Trip to liquor store for cake goody: 8 dollars. (It actually costed more, but my dad covered the difference.)
Trip to IGA (grocery store) for cake goodies: 4 dollars.
Trip to IGA for cake goodies: 5 dollars.
Trip to IGA for cake goodies: 13 dollars.
Spending 48 dollars on a f-ing cake that still looks like crap: Regretful.
Chalk it up to experience. Baking is not the breeze a lot of people think it is. It’s not ditch-digging, but it is anart, and art takes concentration. You’ve got to be precise, and not vary TOO much from the recipe. It’s not like experimenting with stews or casseroles or the like, which have built-in fudge factors. A simple, well-made poundcake is infinitely superior to some tortured,overly-substituted,badly cobbled-together, airy, layered concoction that looks like it took a trip down a flight of stairs. Try and remember what you did that lead to the problem. Too much liquid? Ungreased pans? Overbaking?[this happens frequently, can’t tell you how many times I’ve been subjected to cakes that were obviously well overbaked] Do you know you should only use large eggs in cakes, as the recipes are calculated for just that size. Breakdancing while that angel food cake was in the oven? There’s also the overlying factor of wanting to impress the gathering, and wanting to be done quickly. A recipe for disaster. Read and understand all instructions carefully before you even crack that first egg. If you seldom bake, practice periodically. The dog’ll eat up the disasters, or co-workers can take care of the “almost perfects”. There’s nothing quite as impressive as arriving for some do with a luscious, high-calorie, homemade goody. You’ll get invited a lot of places, believe me, I speak from experience. Once you get used to the phrase, “Gee, we can never bake as good as YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!”, you’ll know you have reached the level of excellence you started out to acquire.
Ah, baking fun. If it makes you feel better I will tell you about my volcano candy bar cake.
The volcano part was an accident. I misread the amount of baking soda as tablespoons, not teaspoons. As I checked the progress of my cake as it baked I saw why they use baking soda to make little active volcanos for school projects. The batter was just bubbling up and spilling over the edge of the pan. I thank the gods I had placed my bundt cake pan on a cookie sheet so at least I didn’t have to clean all that out of my oven. Eventually, I just turned it off and took what was left out of the oven.
Actually, it didn’t taste bad. It was a little chewy but because it was made with candy bars it was pretty sweet and didn’t even need any frosting. However, I didn’t get to use it for the occasion I had planned because it looked so awful. But I took it into work and they ate it … then again, they’ll eat almost anything.
I do enough cooking and enough experimenting that I wouldn’t even dream of calling you on this one. In fact, I’m a firm believer that if it tastes good, who cares how it looks? All in all, it sounds like you actually did pretty good. And hey, keep practicing! With all those yummy “mistakes” who could be upset?
This is exactly why I hate baking…not cooking mind you. I love to cook. Why? Because you can experiment, substitute and generally muck with a recipe at will. Do this with baking and you have a potential disaster on your hands. I’ve never been one to follow the rules–as a matter of fact I made cheesecakes in muffin tins just last night by combining 3 recipes for the crust, filling and top. They are the ugliest little things I’ve ever seen…
My grandma was a fabulous cook, but even she couldn’t always make perfect cakes. Whenever a cake fell in the oven, she’d call it a “sad cake.” You, my dear, had a sad cake experience. Happens to the best of us. And sad cakes still make hungry people happy.
