The Daring Bakers: My Mirror Cake Follies

Well, it that time of the month when I summon my courage and meet the Daring Bakers Challenge.  I'm new to the group, having only done the infamous Martha Stewart Crepe Cake, and Real Jewish Bagels.  This time the amazing Peabody challenged us to make a mirror cake. I've never seen a mirror cake before, never knew there was such a thing.  So, this promised to be quite interesting.  After looking at the recipe. I saw that I would be making cake layers, then combining them with bavarian cream to make a molded structure topped by a shiny gelatin layer.  It seemed like I could manage it, I told myself.  And there it was--my fatal mistake. Somewhere, the baking gods, pastry division, decided to teach me a lesson.  They'd remind Sher that she has very little knowledge or experience with preparing non-yeast baked goods. 

And here is a summary of my three days in baking hell, or How I Learned That I Am A Hapless Fool When Making Mirror Cakes. 

My first mistake was waiting until three days before the deadline of the challenge to make the cake.  I wasn't alarmed. I would bake the two little cake layers on Friday. Saturday, I would make the bavarian cream and assemble the molded cake.  Then, I would put the gelatin topper on Sunday, take photos, and write my post.  Easy, I told myself.

1. Friday.  The Cakes.  It's a simple recipe, seemingly. You beat eggs, sugar and vanilla, then fold in flour and whipped cream, then spread it all on a jelly roll pan and bake for about ten minutes.  Then you cut out two 8 inch circles of cake. My first attempt produced  thin, rubbery cakes layers.  I suddenly wondered if I was still making the Martha Stewart crepe cake, because they certainly looked more like crepes than cake.  There was no way I could use them.  Discouraged, I decided to start fresh on Saturday.

2.  Saturday.  I started again in the early morning and made another cake, after reading tips from the other Daring Bakers who had mastered this type of cake. I beat the eggs and sugar harder and longer this time--and folded the flour and egg whites very gently. And wound with the same type of flat, rubbery cake.  My advice if you make this cake, is to beat the living hell out of the eggs and sugar, before you fold in your ingredients.  I obviously didn't.

I ate some of the cake scraps and sulked. Then decided to try again, beating the eggs and sugar violently, while muttering threats.  And I wound up with more crepe cakelettes.  Realizing this could go on forever, I gave up and began making the bavarian cream, during which I spilled all my vanilla and had to go back to the store for more. Later I discovered that the cream I bought the day before was spoiled.  I dropped an egg on my foot.  Made another trip to the store for more gelatin.  And I curdled the custard for my bavarian cream.  By that time, I was expecting locusts and floods.

Finally after stumbling around and re-doing almost everything, I began layering the crepe cakes with the bavarian cream late at night.  Suddenly, my right hand began to cramp, until I couldn't bend my fingers at all.  It was all too familiar, worse than the massive charley horse that I suffered making the Jewish Bagels.   So, this is how it's going to be with the Daring Bakers Challenges, I thought?   

The aftermath.

3. Sunday.   I began making the mirror and spilled half of the strawberry juice down my shirt.  Luckily, I had more strawberries in the fridge and made another batch.  Finally, I was able to put the mirror on and stash the cake in the fridge.  From that moment on, everything was OK. True, I nearly dropped the cake on the floor later, while removing it from the fridge.  But, by the time I was finished, I was glad to have gone through the experience of making the cake. It could have been better. My crepe cakelettes were not what they could have been. The bavarian cream could have been creamier.  And I should have gone with my idea of putting miniature hockey players on top of the cake, as a salute to Peabody.   But, I was happy to take part in another Daring Baker challenge. Tomorrow I'll enjoy another slice of the Mirror Cake and think what a great group the Daring Bakers are, and how each challenge is always memorable. And thank you again, Peabody.

If you want to see all the incredible mirror cakes from this challenge, I urge you to click onto the Daring Bakers Blogroll and see what real talent can do.  And if you'd like to make the recipe yourself, Peabody should have it on her site. Just follow the instructions!

Note:  I'm also not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to adding things to my blog.  I'm having trouble getting the Daring Baker's Blogroll listed on my sidebar.  So, use the link just above.  It connect you do a lovely blogroll!

Comments

[anh]

Sher oh Sher, this cake is perfect! You are a real daring baker - who is willing to take on different challange! :D Wish i could have a piece.

[ilva]

Your cake is absolutely gorgeous! It's time that you stop having those negative feelings about your baking abilities, you are obviously a pro! And even professionals make mistakes but they never blog about them! Hugs!

[Mary]

After making the cake, my kitchen looked just like yours too. I admire your persistence even though it seemed like the pastry gods were out to get you with hand cramps and spilled ingredients! =)

[KJ]

Oh, you poor thing. You got there in the end though, alls well that ends well. And you have a lovely cake. I'm sure it tasted wonderful.

[Katiez]

Finally, a 'Daring Baker' who bakes like I do! I've been admiring these cakes all morning (and yours is truly lovely, what with all the 'sweat equity, and all) and have no false ideas that I could have made this successfully. I can admire though... I'd even be willing to taste.
Then I'm going to stem my bowl of just picked strawberries, dump some vanilla yogurt on top and have lunch!

[Tanna]

Your cake is beautiful and I'm laughing so hard . . . locusts and floods. Oh my goodness Sher! My kitchen seemed to look like that a lot this month. It seemed for a time to be stuck in a rewind loop!
Wonderful post.

[Meeta]

Sher, this is awesome. The post was excellent and funny and that cake ... gorgeous!

[Anne]

Beautiful cake and wonderful post!

[Butta Buns]

It'll be a dark day in hell when a cake defeats our Sher. Oh the things we do for our art!

[veron]

Oh Sher, your cake looks gorgeous. I had the same mess as you had. Come to think of it if you look at my cake layer, it was kind of flat too. I overbeat my egg whites in this case.

[Jerry]

Congrats on your first challenge, it looks gorgeous!

[Dharm]

You are amazing! Such a lovely writeup and your mirror is lovely, not like the uneven layer I had on mine as well as the uneven layers of Bavarian and cake....!!!

[Jenny]

Your cake looks lovely!

[Kelly-Jane]

Great post, and you got there in the end! I did think about taking a picture of the aftermath too, there was lots of it! Lovely cake :)

[Glenna]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, so sorry all the gremlins decided to sit in your kitchen while you were making this thing but it is beautiful in the end!

Now put your feet up and relax. You've earned it!

[Andrea]

You had me laughing so hard because we had very similar experiences! Congrats on making it all the way through! :-)

[gilly]

Hi Sher - well for all of the troubles it gave you, I think your cake still turned out gorgeous! And I know what you mean about the dishes aftermath - my husband came into the kitchen and his jaw just dropped at all of the pots and pans! LOL!

[Rosa]

Wow, that's an amazing beauty!
At least, you didn't suffer for nothing during those three days of baking hell! You ended up with a perfect cake! You can be proud of yourself to have been so perseverant...

[Leslie]

Uh-oh.....looks like you had a few misadventures along the way, but your final product is beautiful! Great job`!

[Deborah]

I am amazed at the devotion - I think that if I would have had all of your problems, I probably would have given up. Your final cake looks gorgeous, though!!

[Dagmar]

I admire your persistence! The cake looks great and I love that you took a photo of the dishes. My kitchen was a disaster after the baking! :-)

[s'kat]

I think I would have given up after the third faulty attempt with the cakes! You really soldiered on, and in the end, your cake was just as gorgeous as could be.

[Christine]

I think your cake looks lovely. I think your post is a hoot. And I think you are a baker of extraordinarily daring prowess!
I'm coming to Davis in August. Any chance we can have coffee? (and cake?)

[Sara]

Gah! I've blocked out how many sink loads of dishes I ended up washing yesterday morning. All your troubles were worth it though...lovely cake!

[breadchick]

Sher, despite your trials and tribulations with your cake, your cake DID turn out lovely!

[albert]

Hello Sher,

As usual, your creations are so tempting.

Nice work.

[Hilda]

Looking at the cake I would never be able to tell that you went through all that, and apparently it tastes great too, so kudos to you for sticking through all of that! I made a better looking and better tasting version a week after the one I posted, but for the sake of principle I stuck to the one that I put up in spite of my mistakes.

[Lydia]

Hooray for you! You hung in there, when many others would have trashed the entire mirror cake idea. And you produced a beautiful cake in the end!

[Ivonne]

Great cake, Sher! I loved your write-up ... I'm so glad you're a Daring Baker!

(Sorry I haven't been around much lately ...)

[Jennifer]

are you kidding me? That cake is a work of art! You amaze me! It's absolutely gorgeous!