Posted: 7/7/2006 12:50:15 PM EDT
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I sent my two teen agers out to do what I considered a simple task. The problem is NEITHER one of them took the time to follow the directions. Long Story short. I need two cakes. The first would be for my husband's birthday party. The second would be for a funeral tomorrow. What did they do? I gave them the ingredients and recipes to make a box cake. David wanted a German Chocolate, I was going to have a yellow cake for the funeral. They both made the same stupid mistake. Rather than baking the cake in the two tins, they crammed all the batter in one tin [though the recipe called for two and I had two out for them]. Now I have two ugly cakes with batter that over flowed all over my oven [my son made the second cake and actually cooked his fricken cake on top of the spill from Whitney's cake so we have that lovely burnt cake smell in the house that everyone enjoys. Now I have to figure out who to salvage the cakes [short of driving 90 miles for additional ingredients]. 
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I haven't tried to take them out of the pans yet. I thought about doing that my only problem is that there isnt enough cake really to go around. |
I think I'll just combine the two cakes together to make one cake for my husband and frost and then I'll have to make another cake for the funeral. I hate having something that looks so horrible out in public. I get so sick of my damn kids running around aimlessly with no direction. They do stuff like this all the fricken time. |
Hmm.... if you're left with two thick-ish peices, you could slice them across and do four layers, chocolate, yellow, chocolate, yellow, with icing between the layers and then lots of frosting to decorate. That's one cake. Then buy one on the way to the funeral and put it in your own container.
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lol! Well the funeral is here so no buy one on the way. I'll just whip up another yellow cake from scratch myself. I should have done it myself in the first place but they begged me to help.   Damn Kids with High IQs these days!
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Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures! Nothing wrong with that at all. Do you think you can just whip out a from-scratch cake? I have some really good, really quick recipes.... you can give the mixed up flavors/burnt smelling stuff to the dogs... (J/K! not serious- about the dog thing anyway...) |
My son has a high IQ - and absolutely no common sense, but the high honor roll thing makes up for that... 
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oh okay, just RE-READ the original and now I'm visualizing it. Here's what you do. FREEZE the cakes. They won't be manageable otherwise. And this is assuming that they are cooked all the way through. Once they are frozen you'll need to take a knife to them (an electric will work best- otherwise use a serrated bread knife) Cut them in half long ways of course so you have two layers again. Then freeze them again if they are coming unthawed at all. When it comes to frosting time, put the crumbly side of one down on the plate and that layer should be pretty easy to get done. Then you can do the same thing with the top... put the crummy side down so you can frost the easier side. Remember with frosting it is always easier to REMOVE the extra rather than add more if you don't have enough. So when you start on a new area, really pile it on there and remove the excess. Also, keep a cup of warm water next to your frosting and if the frosting is pulling crumbs off and not spreading easy, then just dip your frosting knife in the water before putting it to the frosting. Clear as mud? And if it's that bad, you'll want to trim the sides as well to make them even. As long as your cake is mostly frozen, and you keep your frosting knife wet, you'll be fine. Give it a try. |
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Classic genoise ? soaked with some flavored simple syrup (50/50 sugar and water by volume), and some preserves in between the layers...? Decent looking Genoise recipe here (Men can cook also  )
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Okay I have two off the top of my head, the easiest first: Beat 4 eggs until very light Add and beat in 2 cups sugar 1/2 tsp salt 2 tsp vanilla extract 2 tbsp butter melted in 1 cup boiling milk Sift together and beat in very quickly 2 cups flour 2 tsp baking powder Immediately pour into prepared pan (2 x 9" or 1 x 13x9") Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes. Sift together 2 1/4 cups flour 1 /12 cups sugar 3 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt Add 1/2 cup soft shortening 1/2 cup milk 1 1/1 tsp vanilla (or whatever flavoring you want) Beat for about 2 minutes Add another 1/2 cup milk 2 eggs Beat for another two minutes makes the same amount as the recipe above 25-30 minutes in 350 degree oven |
I'm trying to visualize the ending product. Can you give me more info on what a genoise is? Thank you for your help too. |
Just a really quick chocolate one... it's actually on the back of the Hershey's baking cocoa tin: "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake 2 c. sugar 1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour 3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp salt 2 eggs 1 c. milk 1/2 c. veg oil 2 tsp vanilla extract 1 c. boiling water Heat oven to 350. Grease and flour two (COUNT 'EM TWO, PATTY) 9" round pans. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in water. (Batter will be thin) Pour batter evenly into prepared pans. Bake 30-35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. I hope you already have the frosting, coconut pecan is a little more difficult to make from scratch, but I have a recipe if you want it. And FYI, this chocolate cake recipe is one of the best I've ever had... and I bake ALOT. |
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And here's a basic yellow: 2 1/2 c. flour 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 2/3 c. butter or margerine 1 3/4 c. sugar 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla 2 eggs 1 1/4 c. milk Beat butter or margerine on med until soft- about 30 seconds... Add sugar and vanilla; beat rill well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating 1 minute after each. Mix in milk. Add flour, baking powder and salt and beat until well combined. 375 for 30-35 in 9" rounds. |
Genoise is just a sponge cake that soaks up liquid very good (something a box cake never does IMHO) having a hard time finding a pic but something like this : 
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There's your problem, I'd like to tell you it will get better but.... My Mother had a comic strip on her fridge until I was 30...very simple, single frame (damn, I wish I could find it).. picture of a school front with a sign on the lawn that said "Melville School for the Gifted", a sign on the door said "pull" and there is a goofy lookin' kid, books under one arm..... pushing on the door with all of his might. ...enjoy all the screwed up cakes to come  ETA:  The sign has been changed in this one, but this is it |
LOL- I had that same Far Side comic on a T-shirt when I was a kid... what's sad is we've all done that once or twice... 
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lol! I ended up putting the yellow cake and german chocolate cakes together and frosting with coconut creme icing. I then proceeded to get a headache and didn't eat any cake at all but all said it tasted fine. For the funeral the next day I had my son make oatmeal cookies rather than the trouble of making a new cake. I was still suffering from my headache and that was about all I could handle. The cookies were a hit. The man that died had 12 kids and 61 grandkids! |
...Or spent a couples of minutes wondering why the door with the sign on it that says 'please use other door' won't open... 
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wow, thats a lot of grankids!!! Glad everything turned out okay. I've only baked like three cakes so I wouldn't have been much help!
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| Kids do learn from this. Even though they say "oh well" and pretend to have no care, I bet they will do better next time. Keep giving them responsibility and and praise when they do good and cretique when they do bad. Kids will never learn from mistakes if they never have them. Don't give up and do it yourself. Make sure to involve them when you fix it. Also, have them make another one next month (just for no reason). Also have them clean up the mess in the oven. Make sure to give clear instructions on how to do it, and how not to do it. Don't just say clean it up and don't ruin it. Kids need parental guidance, structure, and education. |