Last week I was given the ultimate assignment in family business. Making a birthday cake for a family birthday party. As explained in my previous posts, I typically make goodies that everyone else can enjoy and not myself. You can call it unselfish, making sure that the baked goods are "mainstream" delicious and not gluten and dairy free. But this time I was sure I could make a cake that everyone, including ME could eat.
Since I have tested several chocolate cake mixes I decided to order one online that I thought would get the most bang for my buck. Since I love Gluten-Free Essentials for their GREAT value and taste (one mix makes a perfect 9x13 cake and the frosting is incredible) I chose this one. I ordered two chocolate cake mixes and two vanilla frosting mixes. I was ready to do business.
The party was on Saturday and I received the box on Friday night leaving me with no room for error. I open the box and find two vanilla frostings.
Check. And two chocolate frostings.
Uncheck. Holy sweet mother of God. I am screwed! I run to Hannafords to see what gluten baking goods they offer at 7 pm on a Friday night. Not much. They only had Bob's Chocolate Cake Mix, which I have tried before and don't care for. I blast over to Shaw's (I love living in a town where there are literally four grocery stores within five miles). There I found Gluten-Free Pantry Decadent Chocolate Cake Mix. I buy four because the box says it makes an 8x8 cake. I need two 9x13s to make a layer cake. Yes I am insane.
I was spending the night with my dear little nephew and his mommy, so I shoved the mixes into my car and vowed to call GF Essentials first thing on Monday. This was turning out to be a mess!
The next day was Saturday. I had dance practice in the morning (which went well- but I'll talk about that in a dance post, not a food one...) and I go home to make my lucious chocolate cake. I have had GF Pantry cake mixes and they are delish- just make really small cakes. I have four boxes of cake mix so I valiantly tear open each box and dump it into the biggest bowl I have. I get my margarine (Earth Balance sticks) and 8 eggs out and start mixing. By the time I am done I am up to my elbows in cake batter from the spray of the mixer. But since it's chocolate I don't care and just fill up the cake pans with the yummy gooey chocolate batter. The Peanut and I lick the bowl clean of course. While the cake was cooking I made the vanilla frosting, which is excellent! A tad bit on the runny side, which I experienced before with GF Essentials frosting so I added more powdered sugar and set it in the fridge to wait until the cakes cooled. It would be perfect by then.
I pulled the heavenly cakes out of the oven. If ever there were a perfect chocolate smell this would be it. It was rich! I tapped my finger on the top of the cake and it sprang right back. I knew this one would be a good one. I let the cakes cool for a few minutes in the pan and then ran my knife along the sides of the pans. I took the first one and flipped it over onto the wire cooling rack I have. It landed perfectly, the underside steaming away as it hit the cool house air, the smell filling the kitchen. I went for the second one, holding the pan in one hand ready to ease it out of there with the other.
Splat!!!! The cake broke into four pieces on it's way out! I stood there shocked. My perfect cake was ruined! I had no idea what to do, but left it there to cool anyway shoving the pieces together and praying it would fuse itself in the cooling process.
I muddled that over while I was cleaning up and they were cooling. What had I done wrong? As it turned out, it would not be the last disaster that day. The cakes were cooled and I was ready to frost. I actually did a pretty good job of manuvering my broken cake half over to the "frosting station" which was just the counter with some wax paper over it. I carefully frosted the cake, making sure all the cracks were filled in, and I "held" it together. It looked decent. A good sewing job. I got the other half and deftly plunked it down on top of the vanilla covreed disaster I had made. Then all of a sudden somewhere in the world a fault line divided and one half of a land mass moved and almost fell into the ocean, lost and gone forever. The other half teetering on it's side while trees and buildings crumbled into mush.
OH WAIT. THAT WAS THE TOP HALF OF MY CAKE. I screamed bloody murder and made a run for my grandmothers room.
What do you mean it fell apart? She says following me/ pushing me out of the way. She is 80 years old and very Italian, if anyone could fix this mess, it would be her. Although I think this is too far gone. The two of us push together the top half as the pieces slide around like a dog on a ice skating pond. It just wasn't meant to be the top half. So we surgically attached the pieces to the cake with toothpicks while my grandmother thinks out loud about what could have happened.
Too much liquid in the cake. It needs substance. The frosting is too thin. Maybe I should get out my bundt pan. Dammit, why didn't you tell me you needed frosting? I have some.
So I call my mother who says, I'm sorry?I need an ice cream cake! I give up, I say. The cake could no way be brought to the party in this condition. My grandmother breaks a hunk of the cake off and compliments me on the taste. Lovely cake. Yes it is a perfect cake. It's too bad it's in 12 peices and the party is in less then an hour. My mother agrees to buy an ice cream cake and bring it home for me to take to the party.
About twenty minutes later my grandmother tells me I could make a trifle out of the cake. Layer pudding, whipped cream, cake, and frosting for a nice dish no one will know I broke into a million pieces. I agree but am too drained to make pudding. I bring the ice cream cake, which I did not taste, but it was gone in about 30 seconds so I guess everyone loved it.
The next day I made the trifle. I didn't have soy whipped cream, but I did have soy chocolate pudding and extra frosting to make it LOOK like there was whipped cream. And promptly ate it for lunch.
For an ex-birthday cake this was delicious. 
Since I have tested several chocolate cake mixes I decided to order one online that I thought would get the most bang for my buck. Since I love Gluten-Free Essentials for their GREAT value and taste (one mix makes a perfect 9x13 cake and the frosting is incredible) I chose this one. I ordered two chocolate cake mixes and two vanilla frosting mixes. I was ready to do business.
The party was on Saturday and I received the box on Friday night leaving me with no room for error. I open the box and find two vanilla frostings. Check. And two chocolate frostings. Uncheck. Holy sweet mother of God. I am screwed! I run to Hannafords to see what gluten baking goods they offer at 7 pm on a Friday night. Not much. They only had Bob's Chocolate Cake Mix, which I have tried before and don't care for. I blast over to Shaw's (I love living in a town where there are literally four grocery stores within five miles). There I found Gluten-Free Pantry Decadent Chocolate Cake Mix. I buy four because the box says it makes an 8x8 cake. I need two 9x13s to make a layer cake. Yes I am insane.
I was spending the night with my dear little nephew and his mommy, so I shoved the mixes into my car and vowed to call GF Essentials first thing on Monday. This was turning out to be a mess!
The next day was Saturday. I had dance practice in the morning (which went well- but I'll talk about that in a dance post, not a food one...) and I go home to make my lucious chocolate cake. I have had GF Pantry cake mixes and they are delish- just make really small cakes. I have four boxes of cake mix so I valiantly tear open each box and dump it into the biggest bowl I have. I get my margarine (Earth Balance sticks) and 8 eggs out and start mixing. By the time I am done I am up to my elbows in cake batter from the spray of the mixer. But since it's chocolate I don't care and just fill up the cake pans with the yummy gooey chocolate batter. The Peanut and I lick the bowl clean of course. While the cake was cooking I made the vanilla frosting, which is excellent! A tad bit on the runny side, which I experienced before with GF Essentials frosting so I added more powdered sugar and set it in the fridge to wait until the cakes cooled. It would be perfect by then.
I pulled the heavenly cakes out of the oven. If ever there were a perfect chocolate smell this would be it. It was rich! I tapped my finger on the top of the cake and it sprang right back. I knew this one would be a good one. I let the cakes cool for a few minutes in the pan and then ran my knife along the sides of the pans. I took the first one and flipped it over onto the wire cooling rack I have. It landed perfectly, the underside steaming away as it hit the cool house air, the smell filling the kitchen. I went for the second one, holding the pan in one hand ready to ease it out of there with the other. Splat!!!! The cake broke into four pieces on it's way out! I stood there shocked. My perfect cake was ruined! I had no idea what to do, but left it there to cool anyway shoving the pieces together and praying it would fuse itself in the cooling process.
I muddled that over while I was cleaning up and they were cooling. What had I done wrong? As it turned out, it would not be the last disaster that day. The cakes were cooled and I was ready to frost. I actually did a pretty good job of manuvering my broken cake half over to the "frosting station" which was just the counter with some wax paper over it. I carefully frosted the cake, making sure all the cracks were filled in, and I "held" it together. It looked decent. A good sewing job. I got the other half and deftly plunked it down on top of the vanilla covreed disaster I had made. Then all of a sudden somewhere in the world a fault line divided and one half of a land mass moved and almost fell into the ocean, lost and gone forever. The other half teetering on it's side while trees and buildings crumbled into mush.
OH WAIT. THAT WAS THE TOP HALF OF MY CAKE.
I screamed bloody murder and made a run for my grandmothers room. What do you mean it fell apart? She says following me/ pushing me out of the way. She is 80 years old and very Italian, if anyone could fix this mess, it would be her. Although I think this is too far gone. The two of us push together the top half as the pieces slide around like a dog on a ice skating pond. It just wasn't meant to be the top half. So we surgically attached the pieces to the cake with toothpicks while my grandmother thinks out loud about what could have happened. Too much liquid in the cake. It needs substance. The frosting is too thin. Maybe I should get out my bundt pan. Dammit, why didn't you tell me you needed frosting? I have some.
So I call my mother who says, I'm sorry?I need an ice cream cake! I give up, I say. The cake could no way be brought to the party in this condition. My grandmother breaks a hunk of the cake off and compliments me on the taste. Lovely cake. Yes it is a perfect cake. It's too bad it's in 12 peices and the party is in less then an hour. My mother agrees to buy an ice cream cake and bring it home for me to take to the party.
About twenty minutes later my grandmother tells me I could make a trifle out of the cake. Layer pudding, whipped cream, cake, and frosting for a nice dish no one will know I broke into a million pieces. I agree but am too drained to make pudding. I bring the ice cream cake, which I did not taste, but it was gone in about 30 seconds so I guess everyone loved it.
The next day I made the trifle. I didn't have soy whipped cream, but I did have soy chocolate pudding and extra frosting to make it LOOK like there was whipped cream. And promptly ate it for lunch.
For an ex-birthday cake this was delicious.