Friday, 30 July 2010

  • Either Betty Crocker Lied or I'm the Worst Baker in the World

    One Summer evening (last week), I was possessed by the urge to bake a cake. Not just any cake, a CHOCOLATE cake. I've had bad bad baaad experiences with melting chocolate (read: everything burnt), so I decided to go with chocolate cake mix and pre-made frosting instead - simple, convenient, fast - there's no way I can mess this up. I thought "with luck, I can almost pass this cake off as genuinely home made from scratch". Thank you, Betty Crocker - helping housewives cheat since 1920. HOWEVER... 

    Oh there's always a "however", don't you just hate that?

    However, the cake did not go as according to plan, to say the least. I used the Betty Crocker Super Moist chocolate cake mix. It was supposed to be easy and delicious - Betty Crocker lied. For some reason the suggested time on the box was too short and the cake didn't bake through the first 35 minutes, as it should. I had to leave the cake in the oven at lower temperatures for an extra good 20 minutes, poking holes every 5 minutes or so as to not over-do or burn the cake. This left some very large crater-like holes at the center of my chocolate cake...

    Does this look "super moist" to you? Certainly doesn't to me!


     


    No worries, with enough frosting, anything can be fixed (or so I thought). The rational thing to do would be turn the cake over and frost it, but not for me! I frosted over the craters, unknowingly allowing the frosting to drip through the gaping holes at the center of the cake, creating a chocolate frosting quick-sand landscape all over the front of my cake.


    Notice the dent in the middle? 



    So, I covered the hole with a piece of strawberry and hoped to pass this cake off as a chocolate lava cake instead. Genius on my part, I thought.
    Ta-daa


     

    It ended up tasting quite good actually, and it was baked poorly enough to pass off as homemade from scratch - a secret I'll never tell. I'll probably end up as one of those soccer moms who buys cake mixes for bake sales and pass them off as my own genuine brilliance. 

    I digress, I am the only person I know (and everybody around me for that matter) to have such baking mishaps - like that ONE time I accidentally put an herbal laxative into the mashed potatoes I made for a potluck (in my defense, the laxative looked and smelled like spices!), but THAT story is saved for another blog.

    Have you ever used cake mixes, and how did it turn out  for you?

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Comments (58)

  • MissLady2012@lovelyish

    Lol awwwww.


    I use them all the time and have no problem...maybe there's something wrong with your oven? 
  • live_for_love@xanga

    Yeah, I agree with the comment above me. I use those all the time and I never have any issues. Are you sure the oven temp was right?
  • just_the_average_jane@xanga

    LMAO at the herbal laxative.  Oh dear.

  • jocadychoi@xanga

    you're not alone!! i don't use mixes anymore..
  • dinguyen@xanga

    haha, i love baking.. but i can't bake from scratch to save my life.
  • SodomyClown@xanga

    Bad things always happen when I enter a kitchen.
  • CelestDiggory@xanga

    The cake turned out pretty lovely, with the powdered sugar and strawberries. I would totally want to try that. I would probably guess it was the temp in the oven, or just the oven in general.


    All ovens are different! I remember the first time I baked cookies at my boyfriends house. The temp was uneven throughout the oven so I had to rotate the cookies. Usually, my oven is a dear and is pretty even to all my cookies.
    But I rant. It might be the oven. Or Betty Crocker really was lying to you o_o
    Btw. I share your fear of chocolate cakes from scratch. Melting chocolate in my kitchen = Most Epic Superfail.
  • babybug329@xanga

    I think you might have used a pan that's too small.  (Looks like 8" or 9" square, right?)  Usually for a box mix I use a pan that is 13x9" or 2 round 9" pans.  The deeper the pan, the longer it takes to bake.  Be sure the oven is heated properly (turn on at least 10 minutes before putting it in) and mixing the batter thoroughly, as it suggests on the box.  To make it taste a little more "homemade," I would substitute milk for the water and add 1 to 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.  I also noticed that if you open the oven frequently before the cake is done causes it to sink in the center.  Try making your own frosting: 1 cup butter, 4 cups powdered sugar (or a little more if it looks too thin after beating), 1/3 cup milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Beat everything togethe with electric mixer until fluffy (5 minutes at least)...no one will notice if there anything wrong with the cake with such perfectly creamy and fluffy frosting!  Have you tried melting chocolate in a double boiler?  (A bowl or pan over a pot of simmering water)  Or the microwave?  I like the microwave method: the trick is to cook it a short time and stirring it.  Don't cook it until it looks melted!  Usually when it's mostly melted (looks shiny), the heat from the melted part will melt the rest with a quick stir.  Be sure to use high quality chocolate, some chocolates have filler ingredients, which makes it not melt well.  Of course to make that frosting chocolate, you can just beat in 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted.


    Don't fret, practice makes perfect!  Good luck!!
  • phuck_diz_shiz@xanga

    @live_for_love@xanga - even if oven temperature is right, oven varies.  Some heat up faster than others.

    I'm lazy so I use cake mix all the time
  • itscatwithak@xanga

    When I want to make a quick cake I'll use a mix, and haven't had any issues.  Sometimes I'll fancy up a mix by adding extra stuff to it, and if its for a special occasion I'll do the cake from scratch.  I made a chocolate lovers cake with peanut butter filling, peanut butter frosting & chocolate ganche last year for my fiancé's birthday.  It was not as bad as you think, as long as you are free from distractions so you can focus.
  • kiteijustmight@xanga

    I have REALLY messed up boxed cake before. But I suck at directions unless I read them like five times before I even start, haha. I left the melted butter out of the "Butter Cake"... I put it in the microwave and forgot about it, ha. But when I do everything correctly, the cakes are usually fine. I suck at icing, though.
  • lifeonacitybusem4@xanga

    Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's your fault.  But homemade chocolate cakes generally taste awful, so you're still better off. 
  • AiMiku@xanga

    The strawberries is a very nice touch.
    I tried the same cake mix and yours look much better and it's not burnt! You can always blame the oven for funny looking cakes.
  • MeghanLarissa@xanga

    I almost always use cake mixes, it's just easier. I make cupcakes a lot out of cake mixes and I spend time decorating them nicely and I always get comments that my cupcakes are the best they've ever tried or something along those lines, I always laughed inside knowing that they were cake mixes, I've never had a problem with a cake mix either, always comes out "perfect". Good luck on your future baking adventures, and don't let this experience deter you from cake mixes altogether, maybe your oven is off or do you live in a high altitude or something? It could alter the end result.
  • herDIAlogue@xanga

    I use cake mixes if time is an issue, and they usually work fine, but I have to agree, sometime sthe time and temperature they give you are completely off! haha

    I can't wait to read about the laxative and mash potatoes story!

  • katlee1030@xanga

    Take no offense if I don't eat something you bring to a potluck :P  Anyhow, my husbands moms oven (which I despise) all ways cooked things SO much slower than it was suppose to.  My moms oven cooks a little faster than its suppose to.  So don't take the cake experience to hard, blame it on the oven :D. When my husbands mom had moved away and we took over her house for a bout a year it took that year for that oven and I to get along.  It ruined a pound cake I made for his mothers birthday by not cooking the inside but burning the out.  I can't tell you how embarrassed I was. Especially since my husband praised my baking skills right before hand -_- (good timing honey) 
  • youngnsassy@xanga

    LOL laxatives in mashed potatoes.
  • Alyxandri@xanga

    lol, I want to hear the herbal laxative story in full.

    The cake looks yummy, even if it didn't turn out perfectly.
  • TifaRose@xanga

    The first time I made brownies, I did it out of a box and thought I'd be good to go. They came out flat and crunchy! I have a gas oven, so it's always been hit or miss on baking things. The cake looks okay. I like taste better than presentation anyway. To avoid the quicksand effect, poke the holes farther apart on different parts of the cake. Did it taste good at least? And it was laxative-free, right? =)
  • TooComplicated2Explain@xanga

    It was probably the type of pan you used, or the oven. They usually turn out just fine for me though. I would definitely love to hear the laxative story though!. lol
  • articulate_silence@xanga

    I love cake mixes, but I never pretend and tell people its made from scratch. Cake mixes are just soo much easier :)
  • explosive@xanga

    Nothing ever looks like it does on the box.
  • Xbeautifully_broken_downX@xanga

    Check the heating element in your oven.
  • dieindiet@xanga

    Cake looks fine to me! And I reallllly want to hear the laxative story.
  • silent_tears_canonlybe_felt@xanga

    Bahaha! Sorry, but this is funny and cute! Though you decorated it really really well! I'm the opposite - I bake awesome-tasting cakes but they always look like crap.

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