The Case of the Burnt-turned-Sweet Cake

I'm not a cake lover. 

Probably it's because I'm not too keen in eating anything sweet as I have the 'diabetes paranoia', hahaha.

But this time, I feel like baking a cake. I love looking at the pictures of beautiful cakes on the internet but to actually bake one, I've never done it. 

So, I decided to bake a cake. 

It's inspired by a 'Wander Tudung People' cake, the chocolate cake with peanut butter cream and snickers chunks. 

It looks quite easy to make so I decided to make one!

I bought the ingredients needed:

For the cake, you need

• A Chocolate Cake Mix ( I used Nona Instant Cake)
• 4 eggs

For the peanut butter frosting, I followed the recipe at Betty Crocker website.

You need: 

• 1 cup of butter/margarine, softened
• 1 cup of smooth peanut butter
• 3 cups of powdered sugar ( I made a mistake of using castor sugar blurgghhh)
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla

For the cake, the instructions are according to what was displayed at the back of the cake mixture box. 

For the peanut butter frosting,

1. Beat the butter until it becomes fluffy
2. Add in the smooth peanut butter, milk, vanilla and 1/2 cup of sugar and beat the mixture until they urmm.. mixed well. 
3. Add in the remaining cups of sugar, beating the mixture well with each addition. Get what I mean? 
4. Coat your cake with your peanut butter frosting. 

What actually happened:

For the cake,

I followed each instruction carefully, just like a good research project student, even adding my own tips I've scoured through the internet like:

•  heating your oven 15 minutes before you bake your cake
• greasing your cake tin with butter before adding the cake mixture in
• Placing your ingredients at room temperature half an hour before baking (until they reached the room temperature)

Everything went well but as I peeked through the oven glass, I saw that the top of the cake gets black, and blacker. 

OH NO!!! DID THE CAKE GET BURNT??!!

I got disappointed, but I will never give up! Giving up is not me! 

Even after it turned out to be like this;

Exhibit A: The burnt-at-the-top-and-edges chocolate cake (so-called).

The cake cracked in the middle, and there were small holes because I used a fork to poke through the cake. 

So I googled to know what actually went wrong. It's the temperature! I followed the baking instruction to burn bake it at 180 degree celsius for 45 minutes but whyy my cake turned out this way? 

As it turned out, many bakers actually encountered this common problem. A good tip to be remembered is to lower down the temperature when baking, or when you see that it's about to get burnt. 

I told you that I shall never give up right? So I took the cake and scraped off the burnt edges and top with the kitchen knife. And may I present to you, 

Exhibit B: The Transformation from Charcoal Black to Chocolate Brown (erkk) 

Now, done with the cake. I had prepared the peanut butter frosting beforehand.

What actually happened:

• I made the mistake of using castor sugar, so my frosting becomes granulated and not smooth. 
• I put too much sugar. The 'diabetes paranoid' person like me doesn't like it. 

Anyway, what's done is done. I then covered the cake with the peanut butter frosting and snickers chunks, decorated it at my whims. 

Exhibit C: The finished product, HAHAHAHA

Exhibits D and E: eh, it doesn’t look that bad..

I then put it in the fridge to cool the frosting, and I braced myself to try a small slice of the cake 

My verdict: heyy not bad, the cake is baked to an almost perfection. Almost, not utmost, lol, except for the small burnt bits at the bottom which are masked by the (unfortunately) sweet peanut butter frosting! 

My dad came back home and I gave him a slice of it to taste

His verdict: Sedap!!! And when I told him "It's super sweet!" He said " No lah" and finished it off. 

Now now, my dad is a brutally honest person. I remember the time when I was 6, and I showed him the drawing that I'm going to send to the KFC Chicky Hours show. Instead of being like other supportive fathers who said "wow, so pretty! You'll win it" and cringed behind their children's back, to me, 

he said "Tak cantiklah! Tak payah hantar,". How heartbreaking. I'm feeling it till this day. HAHA

He's also a cake lover, and he doesn't suffer from 'diabetes paranoia'. 

When my mom came back home, I showed her the cake. She touched it and said 'the texture is good!"

My dad told her "It's nice! Only that she has to improve on the appearance aka the frosting,"

All right! It doesn't matter whether it is burnt/sweet/not pretty, I just baked my first cake! And it is edible! :D 

Now what shall I cook next?

Stay tuned for more of my culinary adventures!!!