A few weeks ago, my roommate and I were assigned to bring desserts to a party. Sweet!
She made a very amazing trifle with chocolate cake, pudding, and whipped cream. I planned to make a light and fluffy lemon cake. Alas! I did not line the pan with parchment paper (always read the recipe BEFORE the cake goes in the oven...). My cake overflowed in the oven and then came out like this.
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| It was so sad when my cake looked like this. The second half came out in crumbs. |
I looked up various solutions online. It appeared my options were cake pops, frosting the heck out of it, or making a trifle.
But woe to me, for my roommate had, an hour earlier, cut her beautiful cake into squares and made a trifle.
Not that trifles aren't delicious, but one seemed plenty. And I didn't want to go buy more ingredients so I took a break and went to my room to think about something else. This is a vital step in any mini kitchen crisis. (Except when you've spilled butternut squash soup everywhere. Then you just have to clean. But that's another story.)
I then looked through my cupboards and found the can of powdered egg whites my mom once bought and then only used once. I had confiscated them when I moved.
| Meringue was born. |
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| I pushed the cake into a springform pan |
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| ... and whipped up a meringue from powdered egg whites |
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| ...spread it on top and baked it! |
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| Voila! |
Do you have any unusual suggestions for fixing a broken cake? This trick worked especially well because this was a very, very moist cake. I'm not sure how well it might work for a more dry cake.
I once messed up muffins and I found a recipe that actually called for pre-baked muffins that would then be crumbled (on purpose!) mixed with more ingredients, and baked a second time . . . as muffins. It was awesome and gooey and chocolate-y (because the original muffins were chocolate and the revamp included more chocolate).
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