Cake Fail
July 3, 2011
Today I made not a Fourth of July cake. It’s actually a birthday cake for Peter, a late one, since we were on the road for his birthday last week and I didn’t get to make one then. And, but, it’s berry season, and the season of red, white and blue, and he likes white cakes.. so.. this one seemed a good choice.
It was a good idea, poorly executed. Let’s see what went wrong..
Working backwards… here is a close up of the end product.
Here it is from on high. Looks pretty, huh? The frosting was exceptional and the berries were pretty good, but looks and good frosting don’t tell the full story.
Not as pretty coming out of the oven.
First problem: it’s way over done; I left it in too long (forgot to factor in that I’d cut the recipe in half, and convection ovens still give me baking challenges). But here was another problem:
That is curdled sour cream…no idea why, maybe the 100+ temps today. Not sure what effect that had on the cake, but it couldn’t have helped. I ended up over mixing in order to smooth this stuff out (which never happened) and that’s never a good idea for a cake.
I also didn’t have white sugar on hand, so used brown. I’m sure that was a problem, I’m just not sure if it was a color, taste or texture problem.
In any case, in the end, it looked ok but the cake part was dry and tough. A Fourth of July dud.
Sorry, Peter.
Life of Wry 
July 4, 2011 at 6:18 am
Not a dud at all, in my opinion! The frosting is killer, and the underlying stratum is perfectly suited for conveying same to the mouth.
July 4, 2011 at 9:01 am
Curdled sour cream? Brown sugar instead of white? I am laughing so hard!!! But it does LOOK nice 🙂 Happy 4th!
July 4, 2011 at 10:58 pm
Please tell me what brown sugar does in place of white. And how would my sour cream have curdled? Coincidentally, that morning at breakfast at Bernardo’s, the milk in my au lait also curdled. TWO curdling dairy products in ONE DAY. I may try the recipe again with a shorter bake time, white sugar and non-curdled sour cream… I hear the cake is fabulous (says “The Nobel Pig” (do you follow her?).