# How can I make an ugly cake look pretty? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 29, 2005, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-make-an-ugly-cake-look-pretty/296832 "2005-03-29T21:13:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MagicEyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@MagicEyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicEyes)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-make-an-ugly-cake-look-pretty/296832/21 "2005-03-30T05:56:59Z")
**kath94,** that chocolate cake with cherry pie filling is one of my favorites! Even better with dark chocolate frosting. I didn’t have the stuff to make it, though. No cake mix in the house, so I had to go with something from scratch. [Pearl sugar](http://www.andersonbutik.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=AB&Product_Code=1106&Category_Code=) is big bits of sugar for decorating. I went with a chocolate butter glaze. It’s a little runny right now–I hope it hardens up like it’s supposed to, or we’ll be looking at a whole new kind of ugly. We’ll see tomorrow. > [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > [This is a birthday cake I made for myself](http://pw1.netcom.com/~heliboy/cake.jpg). First, I didn’ have cake tins; so I used a straight-sided frying pan to bake it in. Next, I didn’t see the bit about having to let the cake cool first before putting the icing on. But ya know? No one else was going to see it, and I didn’t care what it looked like. That yellow cake with chocolate icing tasted just fine to me! 🙂 > > [The following year’s cake](http://pw1.netcom.com/~heliboy/cake2.jpg) did turn out to be more attractive. I bought a pair of cake tins, and I let it cool before I put the icing on. It does work better if you let the cake cool before you frost it. I learned that the hard way, too. The first cake looks like a stack cake. Stack cakes are yummy! I posted a story in a cooking disasters thread about my Worst Cake Ever, but I can’t find the thread. I don’t feel like typing it all over again, but I’ll post a link to it if I can find it. ---
**Author:** ![MagicEyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@MagicEyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicEyes)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-make-an-ugly-cake-look-pretty/296832/22 "2005-03-30T06:02:33Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > My other aunt might have some…but the key is to experiment with your food coloring and add it to the icing until you yourself laugh out loud. I believe Aunt Carole would then “glop it on” and then go in search of another color that would glow in the dark and glop that on as well. She usually had at least three wildass colors on the cakes, although I vaguely recall a very lopsided, two color - hot pink with yellow polka dots - that was one of her classics. > > You know you are successful when you can’t help but stare at it and smile a goofy smile. That just made me laugh! Your aunt has inspired me to make really wild cakes. The next time I make a cake, it just might be hot pink with yellow polka dots! No more boring cakes! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-make-an-ugly-cake-look-pretty/296832/23 "2005-03-30T14:45:58Z")
> [@MagicEyes](#): > > The first cake looks like a stack cake. Stack cakes are yummy! What’s a stack cake? ---
**Author:** ![MagicEyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@MagicEyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicEyes)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-make-an-ugly-cake-look-pretty/296832/24 "2005-03-30T15:57:02Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > What’s a stack cake? A stack cake has fruity filling (usually apple) between several flat cake layers. [http://cake.allrecipes.com/az/AppleStackCake.asp](http://cake.allrecipes.com/az/AppleStackCake.asp) > **[Old Fashioned Stack Cake | RealCajunRecipes.com: la cuisine de maw-maw!](https://www.realcajunrecipes.com/recipe/old-fashioned-stack-cake/)** > > Apple Stack Cake has roots in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Made with a filling of dried apples and batter stacked in six to eight layers, it's one of the earliest desserts of the region. So, the cake turned out okay. Not the best-looking cake ever, but it probably tastes okay. I say probably because my co-worker had to stay home with her sick baby today, so someone is taking the cake to her house, and the rest of us don’t get any cake. Now I’m going to have to make another cake for everyone else, because we’re all chocolate-cake deprived. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-make-an-ugly-cake-look-pretty/296832.md?page=1)