Last Sunday was my 25th Birthday. Shh, yes, I’m getting old. As the only baker in my house, of course the cake duties fell to me. Something I love because I get to experiment with new things.
I had an idea. An idea involving chocolate bubbles. But then I decided to hang out with my friends instead and left myself only 6 hours to complete the cake. What ended up happening was one disaster quite literally flowing into the next.
My first mistake lay in eating up two of those hours with a cake that took 2 hours to bake. I used the same recipe seen here for my candle cakes. I didn’t have enough time to let the cake cool completely before needing to move on with the decorating. An hour was apparently not long enough.
So on went the ganache, which I also didn’t have enough time to let completely set before adding the decorations. And that’s where things went really wrong. Everything started melting all over the place. I’d imagined a gorgeous cascade of chocolate but it ended up being more like ‘whatever stays will do’. A lot of the bubbles I made were too big for the cake, which was even sadder cause many of them were the best looking. Should have thought that out more.
And then there was the cake itself. I wanted to make the inside match the outside so I opted for internal polkadots. Though I quickly encountered a problem: my cake balls floated to the surface. Mudcake is definitely the wrong mixture for this cake. Once I chopped off the dome and inverted it, I just ended up with little half spheres lying on the bottom. Sadness.
But, hey, on the positive side — it was edible? Even if ugly.
It’s a technique I’m keen to revist again. I’d love to create the image of perfection that lives only in my head. Perhaps this is a design better suited to a tiered cake.
As I keep saying to those who tell me they can’t bake like I do. The important part is making mistakes, learning the lessons and doing better next time. I’ll pencil this one in as a lesson learned the hard way.
Cakecrumbs 
If this is the ugly version I’d like to see the good one 🙂
Okay, I don’t know what you pictured in your head, but I think the cake looks very fine! The chocolate balls alone would get me a wow (but maybe that’s saying more about my baking skills thans yours ;-)) , and I think the cascade thing worked. Not perfectly, fine, but work it did. And the little half spheres on the bottom have a nice understated quality.
Re: If this is the ugly version I’d like to see the good one 🙂
Thank you for your words of encouragement!
(Belated) Happy Birthday for Sunday!
Sadly, I did not make the cake in my icon.
I have recently experimented with Chocolate-pumpkin muffins, but to no avail: they were terrible, and tasted like savoury chocolate muffins, if that’s possible! I have learnt my lesson: half the allotted pumpkin as the recipe said, and real, melted chocolate in the mix. But still… I failed, quite spectacularly. I don’t have any photos, however. :/They also don’t last very long, or very well. No idea what to do, except trial and error.
Your cake looked MUCH better than my failed muffins did! That is definitely NOT an “ugly” cake – it’s just a bit different, is all. 🙂
As I was there to witness your stress with the cake, I can sympathise with you. However, I still think the cake turned out great. Even though the polka dots were all at the bottom, I think this still looked effective. The ball decorations were very impressive, and most importantly the cake tasted delicious. I guess it’s best to experiment (and sometimes have things not go perfectly) when the cake is for yourself too?
Indeed – I’d much rather mess up my own cake than someone elses!
As long as its edible then its not a total waste. Despite your mistake, your cake presentation is great it could make any chocolate cake lover drools. Keep in mind that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. So cheer up, everyone did learn from mistakes once in a while. And I’m sure you’ll produce even great masterpiece in the future. ^_^
Thanks! I’m determined to get it right next time!
Hey.
If I have done like 20% percent of this cake, I would be ecstatic. This looked pretty.
Kisses kisses from fellow deviant ~www-arturq
Re: Hey.
Thank’s very kind of you!
I was looking at pictures of fantastic cakes and came across a picture of this one. It was so cute, I had to find your blog and read about it. So surprised to find out you think it’s ugly, because I do think it’s adorable. And the half spheres on the bottom are a yummy surprise!
How are those amazing bubbles made? They look incredible!
Basically the same as in this tutorial: https://cakecrumbs.me/2012/04/23/chocolate-flower-tutorial/
Though I made whole spheres rather than flowers.
i love you…
just found your blog and i’m absolutly in love
I’m a 25 years old girl, baking is my passion but i don’t have even 5 percent of your talent
If you could understand german, i would write thousands of lines… but here my english ends 😀
really great. i didn’t had one till yet, but now are you my idol!
little mani from germany