When Good Cakes Go Bad

Jan
24

Post by community member:

My brother-in-law wanted a pineapple upside down cake for his birthday–a cake which I have never tried to make.

It…uh….didn’t go so great. I am not sure what happened, but it was awful. I even used fresh pineapple. It was tasty, but dense. It was sort of like eating a sticky neutron star…or a pineapple-y brick.

Yummers. So you want my recipe?

Right.

Don’t worry, I don’t believe in torture. The poor BIL was a good sport, though. He said, “Laree, it tasted just fine, really good even. Super-pineapple flavor. But I don’t think I could eat another bite.”

My husband was less forgiving. He said it was like chewing government peanut butter or hot mud.

AWESOME.

The next day I bought a box cake, a can of pineapple and some fresh cranberries. Much better.

Ya win some, ya lose some. And sometimes…you bake a boxed cake!


Larissa blogs at The Henway.



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Comments

  1. knancy says:

    To make the best upside down pineapple cake try Rileysmom recipe right here on CITR. Her recipe beats the egg whites and folds into the cake batter. Not difficult and you already have everything out to work with already. You try this one and you will never think the others are worth making. Also, I have used crushed pineapple on top in place of the rings and this makes it even more gooey good. The lightness of the cake due to the beaten egg whites makes this a melt in your mouth dessert.

  2. Mom2ThreeAdoptedSibs says:

    Awesome learning experience! You have such a sweet family! 🙂

    Government peanut butter!? LOL I just had a flash back to my childhood when my Grandparents received some of that and Government CHEESE too… (They always shared.) 😉

  3. katherine jenson says:

    I am thinking this should be sent to Clover! Tell her it is a big cooky! lol

  4. Larissa says:

    I am glad someone else remembers government peanut butter. Half oil, half sedimentary deposits.

  5. Rachel says:

    I like ManBeef’s descriptive word choices. It makes me happy that I’ve never eaten Govt. Peanut Butter…

  6. Jeanne says:

    Anyone remember G I Loaf, in the olive-green tins?

  7. Marianne says:

    I like scratch cakes, but I always use a yellow cake mix for my pineapple upside down cake. I melt one stick of butter in my cast iron dutch oven, then cover with brown sugar. I use pineapple rings first, put a cherry in the center of each ring, then fill in the gaps with crushed pineapple. Mix the yellow cake mix as directed, but substitute the drained pineapple juice for the water and bake according to package directions.

  8. Pete says:

    Oh, this just made my DAY! There have to be some less-than-completely-successful experiences in life, unless we are just not trying at all!

    We are also cast iron users for pineapple upside down cake. Nothing else gets quite the same crispy around the edges effect.

    There was the time that evidently the last thing cooked in that particular pan was spaghetti sauce or chili, leaving just a hint of something one doesn’t usually associate with cake… (Maybe that is why there now is one cast iron pan which is only used for cakes and cornbread?)

  9. Mary J says:

    TOTALLY cast iron for Pineapple Upside Down Cake, and Marianne, I do the topping just like you.

    This is my Dad’s favorite cake and when I was a kid we would make it in my Mom’s biggest cast iron skillet (and yes, use a box cake mix!)

  10. Alanna says:

    Love a pineapple upside down cake. The 2nd one looks really good.!I always use a boxed mix for mine, I’m going to try it next time by scratch! Alanna

  11. Darlene in North GA says:

    A couple of things can make a homemade cake dense. First being either forgetting to add the baking powder or using baking powder that has gotten old and lost it’s ability to make a cake rise. And then there’s over beating the batter. There’s also using bread flour instead of AP flour or cake flour.

    Since the cake tasted good, perhaps you’d like to Google cake failures and find out what happened to the cake to make it so dense.

    True, shameful story.
    One day I made a very nice pineapple upside-down cake. I had spent about 45 mins making it and cleaning up after it. My (now ex and abusive) husband was working on our car. I was drafted to “help”. I was doing my best to do what he wanted, but he was mad about how things were going and kept taking it out on me. I finally went back inside to check on the cake.

    Well, the cake came out of the oven and as I opened the door to let him know it had cooled, he snarled something really nasty at me. So…I said; “Here’s your cake!” and dumped the cake that I had in my hands out onto the ground. The dog ate it. She appreciated the treat. sigh I should have left him then, but…I kept trying for another 6 years to make that marriage work.

  12. Ross says:

    My favorite cake recipe is the Starlight cake from Betty Crocker. Everyone knows of course that you can substitute 3 tablespoons of corn starch for 3 tablespoons of all purpose flour per cup when you don’t have cake flour. I have had some cooking failures that are family legend.

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