I don't consider myself to be a great cook, but around Thanksgiving and Christmas I love to bake. We are having Homecoming at Church tomorrow, and this is usually when the baking begins for me. I usually make my trusty Caramel Cheesecake and Hash Brown Potato Casserole, but this year I decided to try a different dessert. I was reading in a newspaper and found a Peanut Butter Cake that was a grand prize winner at a recent festival in a nearby town. I LOVE peanut butter so I thought I would bake it for Homecoming tomorow. It calls for Betty Crocker Butter Cake mix. I had never used that before because I always use Duncan Heinz Butter Golden Recipe. After my cake layers cooled, I started making the Peanut Butter Icing. It calls for 12 oz of Evaporated Milk. As soon as I turned on the mixer and got it mixed a little, I suspected a mistake in the recipe (more likely a misprint in the paper), because it was much too soupy. I began adding more confectioner's sugar and finally added a whole extra box. I could have added a little more, but I ran out.
I laid the first layer down on my cake plate and iced the top of it. Then I placed the second layer and it developed a tiny crack in it. "No worry", I thought to myself, "I will just fill it in with icing." Then I placed the third layer on top. It cracked a little larger. Again, I thought, "No worry". I began icing the cake and the crack got a little larger so I filled in it with more icing. Then, the disaster began. It was like a mini earthquake just took over my cake:
The top layer began to pull apart like the earth's crust during an earthquake. This is the final result. I don't think I will be taking this to Church tomorrow. I will just take my casserole. Does anyone know why a cake would do this? I have dark cake pans, so I dropped the oven temperature to 325 as suggested. I baked them two minutes longer than the suggested time because they just didn't look done when I checked them at the suggested baking time.
On the sewing front, I am making outfits for my husband and me to be in a Christmas Bethlehem Drive at Church. I cut out his outfit today and after I get it made, I will make mine. I just finished a skirt that I will share will you soon.
7 comments:
Oh fooey! Too bad about your cake but it still looks oh so delicious. I'm not a baker so I can't give you any advice on that front. Have fun at your Church Homecoming event. I know your casseroles will be a big hit:)
OH! OH! OH! Pick ME!! ME!
This has happened to me exactly twice. And BOTH TIMES I was using a Betty Crocker cake mix. I've gone back to Duncan Hines and have not had this problem again. I stay away from BC cake mixes since then and have had no further problems.
I say just make the same recipe, but use DH. BC seems to be fine for cupcakes, but not for whole layer cakes.
Oh, and I do have a theory about this. BC seems to put more leavening agent in their cake. So it rises higher, but it's so fragile and it cracks when you stack it. DH doesn't seem to rise as high, which is better for a layer cake. Hence my recommendation to use BC only for cupcakes, where it's fine if they rise nice and high.
I recently made TWO DH cake mixes and stacked them. That's FOUR FULL layers high (it was redonkulous), but nary a crack. You can see it here:
http://communingwithfabric.blogspot.com/2010/11/birthdays-curtains-and-rtw-fashion.html
Don't think I've ever used a cake mix in my adult life. It's much better to bake from scratch - you have control over everything that goes in. I just substitute my own cake recipe whenever a recipe in a magazine calls for mix, then play with their icing recipe.
That cake looks famliliar, which is why I don't bake! I love your KnipMode skirt. Gorgeous!
I made a fudge cake from scratch a couple of years ago and it did the exact same thing! my kids loved it though and my youngest keeps asking for that cake and I threw the recipe away.
I realize this is a little belated but in case you haven't received a similar answer already:
The dreaded split-top can be avoided by leveling the top of each layer of cake before frosting and stacking.
Simply let your cakes cool, then use a serrated knife, held parallel to the table-top, to slice off the rounded top of each layer.
If each layer is flat when you stack it, there is no pressure underneath to unbalance or push apart the cake.
And, actually, if you have time on your hands, freezing the layers for twenty or more minutes allows for more precise cutting and fewer crumbs when frosting.
Save the cake scraps for your kiddos or for a tiny batch of cake balls!
You may know all of this already, but hope it's helpful nonetheless.
Leanora
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