MY CHOCOLATE CAKE EXPERIENCE
So…tonight I was in the mood to bake a chocolate cake other than one of my own. I looked on Epicurious and found a recipe that had a good amount of chocolate and cocoa and decided it would be a good one to try. It called for measuring out all the dry
ingredients including the chocolate cocoa and dumping them into a large bowl while the other ingredients like the eggs, melted chocolate and buttermilk all got beaten together. I was so proud of myself for cleaning up at each stage of the process which oftentimes is not the case (although I do preach tidiness and cleanliness in my books!)
Finally I poured the completed batter into the pans, placed them in the oven and waited with great anticipation. I might add that I was really in the mood for a piece of chocolate cake after dinner, one that I had never tried before. I intermittently turned on the oven light to gaze at the cake not wanting to disturb the chemistry by opening the oven door.
After 40 minutes I figured I could probably take a little feel to see how much longer the cake should bake. I opened the oven door and noticed that the layers looked a bit strange. I reached over to feel the center of one of the layers to find that it was pure liquid that had formed a somewhat deceptive crust on top that could have been mistaken for cake but was really just a skin that had formed over what was now a simmering mixture housed in layer cake pans.
At that moment it struck me that I had no recollection of measuring out the flour. And to add insult to insult I was now out of sugar and cocoa (yes, even professional bakers run out of these things) and could not bake the cake again. I took a spoon so as to test the flavor and decided it might have been a really good cake.
So I am trying to turn this negative experience into a positive one by sharing my story with you in the hopes that it will instill confidence in all of you knowing that even professional bakers make mistakes!!
The picture above is what my layers turned out looking like. It only makes me wonder whether next time I should not clean up after every step; could be that mess is part of my inspiration. Here is the link to the recipe in case you want to try it:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Double-Chocolate-Layer-Cake-101275
