I should have caught a clue when I burned the second one.
Instead of listening to the voices in my head, I listened to my friend The Claw who said "A Boston Cream Pie type of cake would be great for my 60th birthday."
This morning I got up to make said cake. I saw in the recipes that it was possible to add 2 squares of chocolate to make it a chocolate cake. The Claw is not opposed to chocolate. I thought to myself- "how cool would that be! A boston cream pie like cake with CHOCOLATE instead of yellow cake."
In the words of Simon, "off I went."
In my self-confidence and ease (I've done this before) I combined flour, double acting soda, and salt. I combined sugar and butter and melted chocolate. I added egg yolks. I patiently alternated adding the dry ingredients and the milk. It was beautiful. A sight to behold. So proud was I. I thought "I should blog this." and then thought "no, it's just a cake- this is really not news for you."
Pans are greased, oven is preheated. Batter goes in. Cakes-to-be enter oven. Call the mom to chat while waiting for the cooking. Talking to the mom-"oops- this recipe calls for 2 tsp of pure vanilla" Rationalized that by adding the chocolate it would be o.k. Maybe even better- a more subtle cake rather than sweet.
At the end of the allotted time, I removed said cakes from the oven. I did the obligatory toothpick test. Hmm., that has a little bit of "stuff" on it. I'll just test it over here on the edge of the cake. Oh good. Clean toothpick. Light brown spots on top of the cake indicating a near-miss burning-saying to self "oh, remember that burned last cake? you got this out just in time. You are so good."
I let the cakes sit. I put them in the refrigerator to cool. When I went to retrieve them, the had collapsed a little. I forgot that maybe I should have taken them out of the pan before letting the official "cooling" begin. Still, surely I'll have a nice flat side to frost when I take them out. Not so much.
Behold my new invention- chocolate crater cake with no vanilla.
And so it goes. Happy 60th Birthday to The Claw. I'll bring over a GiantEagle Boston Cream Pie the next time in town. Delusions of Sophanne the Baker adequately in check.
it tastes pretty o.k.- the parts that are done- it won't go to waste but all the Claw got for his birthday from me were good intentions.
3 comments:
All we can do is the best we can do.
I've always wondered what the purpose of vanilla is... it's not like you can taste the vanilla. Now I know.
I try to stick to breads, bannana bread, carrot cake.....heavy and denses. that way you can't tell it's me messing up :)
Post a Comment