The Ugliest Cake in the World
aka What Happens When an Engineer Bakes
This is what happened. I was making a Chocolate Mocha Cake with Coffee Icing for a potluck tomorrow. It called for two 9 inch round pans. I do not have 9 inch round pans. What I do have is a 9x13 inch pan. I did a few calculations and found that the area was close enough that I decided it would bake well.
(Included for the geeks at heart. Using pi*r^2 I found that one 9 inch pan has an area of 63.55 inches squared. Two of them yield 127.17 inches squared. Nine times 13 is 117 inches squared, close enough, right?)
I decided I would make the 9x13 inch cake a layer cake by cutting it in half and frost two 9x6.5 inch layers. Pretty good idea, huh? Um, no.
When Travis asked me what went wrong with my calculations, I told him that the problem was obviously in the cutting. You do not have to cut a 9 inch round cake. Apparently after cutting, the cake tends to crumble when attempting to frost it. Ooops.
What do I do now? Here is my proposed solution. First I'm going to melt some semi-sweet chocolate chips and drizzle the cake with chocolate. Maybe that will hide the appearance a bit. Ok, not so much hide, more camouflage. Then, when I get to the potluck, I will right away cut it in pieces and put it on plates ready to serve and no one will have to see it's current condition.
And listen what went into this cake. I splurged on the Organic Cocoa Powder for $5, from Trader Joes. Instant Coffee, from Trader Joes. Buttermilk, from Trader Joes. Organic powdered sugar, from Trader Joes. The flour, sugar, and all that was normal grocery store stuff, but there's a lot of good stuff in that cake. And to top it all off (literally,) Travis brought home some leftover Starbucks coffee from work today that I used for the frosting.
Believe me, this cake is good, I had a mountain-top experience tasting it. And then I go and make it look like that. What is wrong with me? I should have just left it in the 9x13 inch pan, threw the frosting on, and take it that way. So frustrating.
This is what happened. I was making a Chocolate Mocha Cake with Coffee Icing for a potluck tomorrow. It called for two 9 inch round pans. I do not have 9 inch round pans. What I do have is a 9x13 inch pan. I did a few calculations and found that the area was close enough that I decided it would bake well.
(Included for the geeks at heart. Using pi*r^2 I found that one 9 inch pan has an area of 63.55 inches squared. Two of them yield 127.17 inches squared. Nine times 13 is 117 inches squared, close enough, right?)
I decided I would make the 9x13 inch cake a layer cake by cutting it in half and frost two 9x6.5 inch layers. Pretty good idea, huh? Um, no.
When Travis asked me what went wrong with my calculations, I told him that the problem was obviously in the cutting. You do not have to cut a 9 inch round cake. Apparently after cutting, the cake tends to crumble when attempting to frost it. Ooops.
What do I do now? Here is my proposed solution. First I'm going to melt some semi-sweet chocolate chips and drizzle the cake with chocolate. Maybe that will hide the appearance a bit. Ok, not so much hide, more camouflage. Then, when I get to the potluck, I will right away cut it in pieces and put it on plates ready to serve and no one will have to see it's current condition.
And listen what went into this cake. I splurged on the Organic Cocoa Powder for $5, from Trader Joes. Instant Coffee, from Trader Joes. Buttermilk, from Trader Joes. Organic powdered sugar, from Trader Joes. The flour, sugar, and all that was normal grocery store stuff, but there's a lot of good stuff in that cake. And to top it all off (literally,) Travis brought home some leftover Starbucks coffee from work today that I used for the frosting.
Believe me, this cake is good, I had a mountain-top experience tasting it. And then I go and make it look like that. What is wrong with me? I should have just left it in the 9x13 inch pan, threw the frosting on, and take it that way. So frustrating.
posted by catankgirl at 11:05 PM
11 Comments:
At 8:07 AM,
Erin said…
LOL! I'm sorry, but that is pretty funny! Are you still going to take it anyway or bake another? I bet it tastes good anyway!
At 12:13 PM,
safi said…
omg it isn't that ugly (kind of).. Bet it taste delish..yumm !
At 1:42 PM,
allison said…
Well, all that matters is the taste! Don't judge a cake by it's froster :)
At 2:34 PM,
catankgirl said…
Oh yeah, I took it! And it got rave reviews! :-)
At 6:08 PM,
Highlandgal said…
Hee hee, you did math to make a cake. And didn't even use fractions.
At 10:42 PM,
4texans said…
I bet it will taste great! Next time, after you take it out of the pan (I like to use parchment paper), freeze it, then it will be easier to frost and won't crumble. You are supposed to do a crumb frosting, then let it set and do another frosting if you are frosting...but yours looks like kind of a glaze?
At 10:43 PM,
4texans said…
Oh, yeah, I usually trim the cake down before I freeze it, like usually the top part is too rounded. I trim that part off so it's flat. But I usually do rounds or squares.
At 10:44 PM,
Momma-rama said…
That cake could make me a happy woman. I don't care if it's ugly, I'll eat with my eyes closed :)
At 9:33 AM,
catankgirl said…
See, this blog is so useful! I learned something new about how to frost cake! I will try the freezing and frosting twice next time. Yeah, the frosting was actually called icing and a bit on the thin side, maybe because it was made out of coffee, but it was pretty easy to work with, easy to spread, but stayed where you put it. Next time I'm doubling it and doing what Katherine said and it will be perfect!
At 5:37 AM,
Anonymous said…
Cracks me right up that Travis said, "So what went wrong with your calculations?" That is so something my Engineer would say. :) It sounds yum!
At 12:11 PM,
Sraikh said…
Thats really funny Jessica
but I'm glad people liked it anyway!
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