Tuesday 7 July 2015

The cake from hell...

It was one of those days when if anything could go wrong, it did. I really should have known better than attempting to cook a cake!

There was I thinking I would have another go at the Nigel Slater Gooseberry Crumble cake but without the crumble. I had a new tin, 7" instead of 8", that'll be alright thought I - doomed, doomed, we're all doomed!

Anyhow, I read the first part of the recipe, completely forgetting that last time I made it, I had noticed an error and corrected it but not altered my incorrect recipe:( and put the first lot of ingredients in my mixer. Meanwhile I got on with lining my tin.

Nope, the parchment paper had a life of its own, the scissors wouldn't cut correctly, despite slightly greasing the tin and crumpling the paper, it just would not go in properly.

I chose this inopportune moment to glance at the sloshing noise in my mixer. It should have been quiet, pale and fluffy. Oh dear, I had put the eggs in with the butter and sugar!

Off I went in a huff, scissors thrown across the kitchen, audibly my volume rose and my swearing set off the smoke alarm (metaphorically speaking).

DB very bravely came through so see if he could help - his answer was me continuing to have my hissy fit. Anyhow, braver still, he stood waiting until I had calmed down enough and with a breaking voice said what was going wrong. I HATE it when a cake nearly reduces me to tears, it is just ridiculous.

DB hasn't lined a tin for a long while but after a bit of instruction, fetched another pair of scissors and got on with it. As you can imagine, he had it done in no time.

I meanwhile, set about rescuing the cake mixture. There was no way it was going to work and for a short moment, I thought about throwing it out but hate wasting food. In the end I got all the ingredients and threw them in and let it get on with it. Nope, it mixed them in and it was still too wet (due no doubt to the fat and sugar not having been whipped to a light and fluffy stage).

In desperation I threw in more almonds, then more, and finally emptied my half packet in and added a spoonful of baking powder for good measure. That seemed to do the trick.

It went into the tin, was topped with gooseberries and baked for the required 1 hour. Wasn't anywhere near done and in the end it took an extra 30 minutes.

The outside is not as brown as it looks on the picture and as the gooseberries sank in some of the cake mixture rose up like a gooseberry volcanic eruption.

Anyhow, it tasted fine, but a little dry due to all the almonds and as usual, it can be eaten with custard. The next day, the moisture from the gooseberries had worked their magic and it was nice and moist:
Now that you have finished laughing - stop reading:)

18 comments:

  1. It's our age, we just can t concentrate for as long as we used to. So, it's not your fault, blame it all on hormones!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I could have kicked myself for not altering the recipe first time around. If it is my age, heaven help me in the next 10 years!

      Delete
  2. Oh dear.....I shouldn't laugh, but I was. Never mind, we all have days like those. I know what you mean about being so annoyed when a cake mix goes wrong, but not wanting to waste it, it's really frustrating isn't it? Sure it still tastes good, though.....custard covers a multitude of sins ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Custard - the saviour of all things sweet that have gone wrong!

      Delete
  3. I'm not laughing ..... honest .....!!

    You persevered and got something very edible out of it in the end, so very well done. I've been known to have a hissy fit over a lot less ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I worry that my hissy fits are happening more often much to DB's disgust, poor chap!

      Delete
  4. I'm not laughing - I'm impressed at your perseverance!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Have you now altered the recipe?! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Brave DB - any husband who comes in when wife is swearing at cake mix deserves a medal [and a slice of the 'rescued' cake]

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He would normally walk away but this time he hung around, thank goodness. Mind you, the thought of cake probably helped!

      Delete
  7. The cake looks lovely I hope you enjoy every slice of it. Its strange how all the evil forces come together at the same time in an attempt to floor us!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh my days, i'm sorry but that made me laugh so much - hubby is looking bewildered which just makes it funnier :-) so often on an everything going wrong day i end up in the kitchen attempting to bake! Just so glad to find someone else goes through the same things - yhe last mess that saw tears was a disastrous batch of biscuits that the kids only ate from loyalty ( hubby wouldnt touch em!) and which saw the kitchen entirely covered in flour and everything j owned use to try to rectify things! Bad day for biscuits that was :-) xx

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sounds like life at my house ;)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ooh, I made it with a wild strawberry topping, I used the amounts in the recipe and used the all in one method and a wooden spoon. It was ace.

    ReplyDelete
  11. My hubby would have walked in and walked out at the first swear word, you have a keeper there!!!! Custard solves everything, but your cake looks lovely xxx

    ReplyDelete
  12. I think it looks lovely - my stomach's rumbling already!

    ReplyDelete

I love hearing from you, will read all your comments and try and answer any questions you leave. Please leave comments in English. Don't forget to come back and read my reply! All comments are moderated so if you try to link it to a commercial web site, it will not be published.