In the Kitchen - Cake Fail or Lessons Learned

I'm switching things up this week, because what I want to share with you, I have to do in a hurry, before I lose my nerve.  It's so embarrassing.

First off, I want to show you what I woke up to this morning.  That is snow coming down heavy.  You're looking through a screen.  I was very displeased; the weather man last night specifically said we didn't need to worry down here in the valley, the winter weather advisories were only for the mountains.   So I frantically grabbed some sheets and ran outside to cover my poor cold tomatoes and peppers.  I had visions of knitting them little sweaters.

That is what my mind has been like today.  Very confused.  I poured half and half in my water glass instead of my coffee cup.  Then while filling the sink to wash dishes, I decided I really needed to put a load of towels in the washer.  So I wandered down to the basement.  I forgot to turn the kitchen faucet off.  Then later I was trying to make toast under the broiler and again I wandered off, but remembered that one just in time.

I'm getting to what is under this very pretty cake plate.  It is something hideous.  It has to do with being distracted as well.  All last week I just did not accomplish anything at all other than feeding my cake plate addiction.  Between headaches and neck pain and cramps and extr-e-e-em lethargy, I didn't get anything done.  So yesterday in a burst of energy, I thought I'd do it all at once.  And in a hurry because the final episode of LOST was last night and I had to be prepared for that!

Well, as I've mentioned, I have this not so secret desire to be a master baker.   I'm trying to learn to make pretty cakes.  I found a recipe that I, rightfully, thought would challenge me in several areas.  This cake had a chocolate sponge layer, a hazelnut dacquoise (I practiced saying this all day.  Wasn't very successful at that either), hazelnut buttercream, whipped chocolate ganache filling, and finally, covered with a smooth ganache shell.

What I learned:  Read the recipe all the way through, twice.  Read other recipes for the same thing and compare notes.  Don't decide you need to clean your entire house on the same day that you are undertaking a baking extravaganza.  Focus.  Did I mention focus?  When you are warming the egg whites for your Italian meringue, don't wander off to do something else.  Egg whites cook!  Don't take short cuts because you are getting tired and bit off more than you can chew in one day.

This is the very embarrassing result of my lack of focus, looking even worse now because at the end of the evening, after the LOSTfest, it was midnight and I was tired and I didn't have anything to put my already wonky cake in, so I put a bowl over the top.  Oops.  It was stuck inside the bowl this morning.  I had to scrape it out, before I gave it away to a chocolate loving friend who doesn't mind an ugly cake.

I'm awfully disappointed that I don't have a pretty picture of a pretty cake, but that's all part of the learning process, right?  And since I am trying to document my learning journey here, I decided I have to show it all, the successes and the failures.

I'll be back tomorrow to show you what I've been up to with needle and paintbrush.  It's all about bees this week.