The Birthday Cake That Wasn't to Be

 For several weeks Landon and I had planned to bake a cake for the Shrimp Boil on Saturday because it was also Aunt Karen's birthday.

And...cakes are the project in Family Favorite Food Recipes for next year, so this would be a great start.

He poured over the cookbook that was Aunt Megan's Christmas gift last year.  He finally found the perfect recipe for a Funfetti type of cake, layers, vanilla, buttercream frosting, and topped with sprinkles.

This morning after breakfast at Cracker Barrel, Papaw, Landon, and I stopped at Meijer to pick up a few items on the list that we didn't have on hand...more butter, more powdered sugar, whipping cream, whole milk, spray Pam type of oil with flour added.

When we returned home, the eggs and butter were on the counter, coming to room temperature, and we pulled out all of the other items needed.   He set the oven to 350 degrees to pre-heat.  Last night we found the pans, the tools needed, and the measuring cups and bowls to use.

Even though it had been THREE months since his last baking experience (which was in July for his 4-H judging), Landon was still on top of things.  He remembered measuring, using the straight edge to level the flour and sugar, pouring the salt over the sink, using the custard cups for the small ingredients like baking powder and vanilla, and checking the recipe frequently to be sure he was following all of the directions.

Finally the batter was ready to pour into the prepared pans.  The oven had been heated. He opened the door and slid in the two round 9" pans.

Since I told him I would be in charge of the clean-up, he retired to the living room to talk to Papaw.  At one point he returned to the kitchen, clicked on the oven light, and was dismayed because it didn't look like the cake batter was rising.

The toothpick test when the timer went off yielded some gumminess so 10 minutes were added to the clock.  However, the second amount of time did nothing to improve the texture of the layers.

After cooling on the wire racks, and while Landon was mixing up frosting, I flipped the cakes over, one at a time, to inspect the sides and bottoms....and was shocked.

Both cakes had caved in middles.  They looked like they had solidified instead of baking into a flaky cake with a moist crumb. I grabbed a knife to check and cut a small wedge from one of them.  I am not sure how to describe the end result, but it was not anything at all like a cake---unless it was to be a cake of soap.

A quick check of the recipe confirmed that no ingredients were omitted, and no additional items were added.  We followed the directions, and the oven temp was set correctly.  

But the cake looked and tasted like no other we had ever baked before. Honestly, nothing we had ever tasted before was similar to the end product sitting on the cooling racks on the kitchen counter.

What to do now?

The cake was pitched.  The container of finished frosting was placed in the fridge.

And Landon and I were on a mission to find a back. Meijer to the rescue!  A nice yellow cake with white icing, decorate with yellow roses and green curliques. The nice lady at the bakery added Happy Birthday Aunt Karen in green.   Landon also found a package of sugar cookies that we can frost also.

All is not lost.  We have a cake.  We have cookies to frost.  We even bought a '6' and a '2' for the top of the cake.

And if you look at Landon's cookbook, one recipe has a notation:  10/16/20  HORRIBLE!

We won't be making that one again!