Yes, it has to be a true cake – no ice cream ‘cakes’, no twinkies with a candle, and definitely no pie. The cake will be excellently baked and frosted (if that’s what you wish) nothing burned or rotten ingredients or poisoned or anything.
For me
Best: German Chocolate cake. Love that coconut/pecan frosting and the ‘not overwhelmingly chocolate’ but chocolate cake.
Worst: Angel food cake with whipped up vanilla frosting. Bleh. I was the first girl in the family after a few boys, and for some reason my mother thought angelfood cake was the most opposite of boy cake, you know, refined, delicate? I’d sooner eat foam rubber.
Best would be German Chocolate cake, but it has to be the German Chocolate type of cake, not just regular chocolate cake with German Chocolate cake frosting. And the cake and frosting must be made from scratch.
Runner up would be cheesecake, if that counts as cake.
Worst would be any store-bought bakery cake that has an inch thick layer of nasty sugary frosting. Blech.
Best: A true red velvet cake, not a white cake dyed red. Cream cheese frosting on top.
Worst: The strawberry cake my ex bought at a Safeway store. It tasted like strawberry ice cream. I detest strawberry ice cream.
Going from the tread title, I’m kind of disappointed that the thread is limited to types of cake. There are so many things I would be unhappy to see sitting on a table.
Best: chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I’d be disappointed if the cake had whipped cream frosting instead of cream cheese or shortening frosting, but I’d eat it.
Also perfectly acceptable, vanilla wedding cake. I like how dense wedding cake is, presumably to hold up under its own weight.
Worst: German chocolate cake- I really hate coconut. Almost as bad: carrot cake. We’re talking cake here damnit, no vegetables! A zucchini cake I would pick up and throw at you.
Won’t put this into the misread thread titles, so it goes here, but thought the “what” in the title was a “who” (as in what people you have known would be the biggest–best OR worst–surprises to show up as guests at your party…).
That was totally my take too. If the thread is about cakes, the title should be too.
Going from our broader definition, probably the worst, but still plausible, thing to find sitting on the table at the outset of a surprise party is your clothes. After you misunderstood what was going on and thought your spouse had prepared a special “surprise” just for you two :leer: and had gotten undressed in anticipation. Oops.
I wasn’t limiting myself to plausible. I clicked on the thread thinking more on the lines of Cthulhu or radioactive waste. Although both of those make bad cake ingredients, too.
My mom used to make my favorite cake for my birthday: devil’s food with fluffy white marshmallow frosting. The frosting came from a Betty Crocker mix that I haven’t seen for decades. It was soft and marshmallow-y and contrasted with the devil’s food really well.
My least favorite cake is the white sheet cake with white shortening-like frosting, the kind you see at office birthday parties. I not only dislike it, commercial cakes like this have something in them that really upsets my stomach. I haven’t had a bite of one in many years.
(and so early)!