This is my save! the cake disaster is below. There’s a little story first!

My Grandmother is an amazing cook and the hardest sell you will ever meet, no restaurant or catered event has ever served anything good enough for this tough lady. I am crazy about her, snark and all!

Every Tuesday my grandparents come to my parents house for lunch, my grandfather has become very weak and to give my grandmother some time off, my mom started hosting this weekly lunch for them. Being here this month I jumped at the opportunity at showing my Grandma my mad (albeit newbie)  kitchen skillz!

Garlic Oven Roasted Potatoes and homemade Burgers (with Rice and Beans, of course) were the menu, everyone enjoyed it, not a smile from my Grandma. I watched her with the same intensity as the contestants in “The Chopping Block”, she asked me what spices I used and how I did it, and gave me a very curt “it’s very good”. (I was semi devastated, if there is such a thing, the other five people on the table loved the food.)

The cake was the simplest part of the menu, I’ve been baking so often these days, foolishly thought it was a done deal, if it weren’t for that silly silicone pan. Out of the oven came my Ginger Dark Chocolate Bundt and that pan would NOT cool, twenty minutes had passed and nothing still warm. Placed in freezer for 15 minutes and still when I flipped it cake carnage!!!

Luckily my Raspberry Frangelico compote was perfect,so I served it sliced

She enjoyed the cake but not the compote, turns out she doesn’t like tart things… Didn’t take it personally, it’s just a matter of taste.

But wait! There’s more!

Needed a ride somewhere, so I was with them on the drive home, after I walked my Grandfather to his trusty chair, my Grandmother gave me a big warm smile along with big hug and said I was completely approved and that she was proud of me and loved the food!

Yay!

ps: And that stupid Silicone pan is gone!!
ps2: If you we’re enticed by the sweets from the previous post, I added a link to a recipe.

Or, when when your frosting fails and your cake doesn’t rise.

How do you, dear reader, deal with baking failure? Of course if it’s inedible we all throw it out, but what if it’s salvageable? Do you salvage? Do you have backup plans? Do you drop a cute little fondant flower on it and sigh “oh, well”?

We all know baking is a very exact science. I spoon and level my dry ingredients, have a an oven thermometer, I make sure all my ingredients are room temperature, measure all of my ingredients and lay them out around me before hand, never over beat anything and yet still sometimes the frosting just curdles on me and your cake has an identity crisis in the oven and finally realizes that it’s actually a door stop and not a cake.

I always have back up plans, it might be because I’ve been working with technology since my teens and computers can be fickle. My projects were always turned in on a burnt cd, while also having an online backup and carrying it in a zipdrive (this was a while back) in my bag just in case.

This approach spilled over to my life, I usually bake things early enough so that there is time to do over whatever fails, and I’ve been pretty good about stocking my pantry. Sometimes however there’s no way out of the flop and while I try to be non chalant about them, I really can’t. I’d love to know what you guys do.

(Oh, and the cupcake above was one of the Lost cupcakes, that ended up flat.)