I think it is important to share our disasters as well as our triumphs…and how we can sometimes turn a mess into, well, perhaps not a masterpiece, but at least something at will work.

I had a birthday cake to do for a dear friend for Saturday.  35 people.  The plan was Chocolate fudge cake from TCB with my variation on chocolate mousseline (one recipe of mousseline with 8 oz of bittersweet chocolate and 30 g of cocoa powder).

I was planning 2 layers, each 9 x 13”.  I have a 5 qt mixer and I didn’t think i could handle all that batter, and I have a small oven and was concerned with even baking if I did two large pans…so I decided to do it in two batches. I stated this project at 9 PM on friday night, was working all day saturday Had to get up at 6:15 AM, and had to deliver the cake at 5 PM saturday evening…so all had to be complete before bed.  First batch of batter / first layer…perfect.  When the layer was baking I mixed up the batter for the second layer (I have two pans) so I could put layer number two in the oven as soon as #1 came out.  When I took the second layer out of the oven, it too looked great.  I let it cool 15 minutes in the pan, and then turned it out onto a rack.  Some how I lost my grip.  I don’t know what happened or exactly how it happend, but the layer fell out of my hand onto the counter top and broke into about 8 pieces and a pile of crumbs.  For a minute I just looked at it.  and I said…ok…cake for me to eat, lets get started on another.  I put the water up to boil and I glanced at the clock.  It was midnight. It would take me at least 1/2 hour to get that batter made (even chilling the cocoa/boiling water in an ice bath)...nearly an hour to bake, 2 hours to cool…and then start the frosting/decorating?  not to mention cleaning the mess?  I would never get to bed at all. So…I carefully lifted all intact pieces onto a cooling rack.  I scooped all the crumbs into a bowl.  When everything was cool, and the buttercream was made, I mixed the crumbs with some buttercream to make a paste.  I put buttercream on the intact layer, and then assembled the broken pieces on top of that, using the crumb/buttercream paste as sort of a spackeling compound to hold everthing together, and to fill in any missing pieces (before I decided to do this…I ate some of the broken cake…oops).  I then put the whole thing in the fridge to chill and stiffen, and then I iced and decorated it.  I had some trouble getting it perfectly square…and perhaps with more time I could have done it…but I think it was more than good enough.  I didn’t get to bed till 3…only three hours sleep…but I made it.  Decoration was quick and simple…again…no time to fuss at 3 am.  I was concerned that it might fall to bits when I cut it…but it didn’t.  Some people did get a piece of cake with an awful lot of frosting, but no one complained.

Congratulations on a great save- I must say that it is the prettiest “save” I have seen in a long time- your “nothing fancy” decoration is beautiful!  Thanks so much for sharing, I’ll remember this next time I’m in the same boat.  I’ll admit I always have a moment of fearful hesitation before flipping a cake onto a rack.  Hope you’re able to get some rest today!

Thanks for sharing! And it turned into a beautiful cake after all. If it’s good frosting I’m sure nobody complains.

I had a similar problem a few years back, with the biscuit of a biscuit roulade getting no attention and then breaking instead of rolling - I turned the mess into a two layer cake with lots of stabilized cream and fruit in between. Everybody loved it.

Wow!  You’d never know that part of that cake was possibly destined for the chef!  Looks great.  I too have much hesitation when I am flipping cakes on racks.  No matter how many times I’ve done it, I still get nervous (especially the larger ones…the smaller can be tricky too, so as to not put pressure on the edges).  You’re a saint for staying up late to get it right—and smart enough to know when to draw the line

You did great! Remember Julia Child’s words. I wish I could find the quote so I don’t have to paraphrase her, but basically, she said if you make a mistake, don’t tell anyone and they will never know the difference.

We all have stories of disasters, near disasters, and how they were saved (or not). Many years ago, I baked a German Chocolate Cake for my son’s birthday. We drove to his friend’s house with the cake on the floor of the car in the back. You can guess what happened—my son climbed over the front seat to get something in the back and put his sneaker right into the cake top, leaving a precise impression. I don’t even remember what kind of tool I had to use in the car, but I pulled over, cleaned the frosting out of the impression, and scooped much of the frosting from the side to fill in the imprint. No one every said anything. They probably thought it was special to have extra frosting in the cake center.

Another time I slaved over a cake for Valentine’s Day, using a recipe featured on the front cover of a Bon Appetit magazine. It, too, was on the floor of the car (I guess I didn’t learn my lesson the first time), in a huge stainless steel bowl. I was driving, in the car by myself, my husband riding ahead with a friend. For whatever reason, we both pulled over and my husband got in the car with me. A very large boot went into the cake. I had spent so much time on this cake, so much money on imported chocolate…I was so crushed that I started to cry. Everyone came to reassure me when they saw real tears. We continued on to our party and every crumb of that cake was eaten.

thanks to everyone for your kind words and your stories.  And to all:  Keep baking!

Perfection as usual Bill.  I’d expect no less from you, even as a near disaster threatened your creation!

Bill, there isn’t doubt you are a dedicated baker!!!  3 hours of sleep is beyond my art!

If you could guess how these lemon poppy seed sour cream cakes looked on the non-photographed side, I will name this take after you!  http://myyellowkitchen.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/lemon-02-poppy-seed-sour-cream-cake-page-41-–-the-stars/

wow!! I love hearing these stories that way you don’t feel so alone. I’d say you did a pretty great job despite the roadblocks….AND You got to eat some of the cake!!

No way we’d know Bill if you hadn’t said something, it looks beautiful. How do you get such a nice shine from your famous BC?

Wow!  I don’t feel so bad about some of the “midnight-Madness-Mishaps” ny more.  I was making a flourless genoise a fe months ago and lost my grip on two of the rounds i intended to serve the next afternoon, and no more ingredients to make nother at all!  I ended up torting the two roundse i had and filling the inides with a strawberry whipped crem stabilized with gelatin.

I kept thinking the whole time I was serving the cake that someone would say something…

BTW, I love that comment by Julia Childs; Bill, the cake fits that quote: beautiful.

THanks again for your comments and stories.  THe shine on the buttercream?  I don’t think it was really that shiny, it was just the way the light hit the cake when I took the photo with my cheap cell phone…LOL…but I do go over the surface of the cake with a hot spatula to smooth everything out.

Wonderful save Bill, and the cake doesn’t look like anything went wrong at all! It’s gorgeous!

Thanks for sharing Bill. The cake looks great.

We kept using the Julia Child quote all week long when talking about all the holiday baking.