I must say, I’m quite pleased with this from-scratch cake.
My lack of cake-baking skills is legendary. I’ve routinely messed up more cakes in more ways than the cake sciences know how to count: tough and dry…collapsed middle…overbaked edges…collapsed edges and overbaked middle…undermixed…overmixed, if it can be done to a cake wrongly, I’ve done it.
This one came out just about perfect, if I do say so myself. It’s a good ol’ 1234 cake (though I made just the one layer, so maybe that makes it a 1/2 1 1-1/2 2 cake) that gets taught in middle school home ec classes, and it’s light and fluffy, no dry bits of flour, it didn’t dome, it didn’t sink, it just sat there and said, “I’m a fine cake, aren’t I?!” - yes, you are!
The frosting…that was another story. I went to make a simple ganache, but it never quite set up. No problem, I’ll just add some powdered sugar…and cocoa powder for balance…and more powdered sugar…cocoa powder…hmmmm, I think I have cream cheese in the fridge, some of that…and more powdered sugar…and more cocoa powder…until it finally reached a consistency and taste I was happy with.
Now, both of us having covid, our taste is off, so it’s likely this is off the charts on the diabetic coma scale, but it tastes ok to us.
The design…I’d held a little of the original ganache back and once I’d frosted the cake, I thought, “Ohhhhh, I’ll drizzle the darker stuff over…that’ll look well done up,” but of course, the ganache started drizzling before I was quite ready and splashed all over, but I still think it looks good. To quote Pee-Wee Herman: “I meant to do that.”
