Oh dear Chitlins. My kitchen is staging a mutiny against me again. I hope to wrangle it into submission soon, but in the meantime…
It’s Tuesday With Dorie! Yay! I was really excited for this recipe because I had just finished reading My Life in France and this is a FRENCH strawberry cake, c’est parfait! But then this past weekend I was putting together a cupcake order for Coach and half the wrappers peeled off my cupcakes so I didn’t fill the order all the way and sent The BF to work with some sad half-wrapped cupcakes (covered in sprinkles as a distraction).
I didn’t get to start this cake until 10:30pm last night. Yeah, smooth moves there Ace. And then I read the instructions all the way through and these words popped out at me, “Be careful as the batter is especially fragile at this point.” Oh god. Fragile batter? I’m doomed. But I persevered because I really wanted to pretend I was in France and making something classically French. I was muttering French phrases, of which I only know a handful.
Icky dense layer on the bottom. Boo.
Everything looked like it was going smoothly, I didn’t have a hard timefolding in the flour mixture (which I sifted at least three times), but then when I folded the batter into the butter, that seems to have been my downfall, quite literally. When I poured the batter into my pan it sort of sunk in the middle – that does not bode well for the final product. Indeed, my cake had fallen while baking, which made it impossible to slice into the recommended three layers. And as you can see in the slice I pulled out, the bottom is some kind of dense brick mess.
On the bright side, I think I made it look pretty, and the whipped topping is divine. So it’s pretty to look at, but I’ll be tossing it in the garbage tonight. What a shame. Just have to practice my genoise skills a little more.
This week’s hosts were Sohpia of Sohpia’s Sweets and Allison of Sleep Love Think Dine where you can find the recipe. Or just go pick up a copy of Baking with Julia. Of course don’t forget to go check out all the other particpants here.
the toasted sprinkle 
Oh dear. I have had a similar result with banana bread.
I’m sorry the bottom half didn’t cooperate, but your cake does look beautiful!
Thanks so much! I tried to at least make it look pretty even if it didn’t turn out well. I need to practice my cake styling anyway so it was fun.
Well, you succeeded in the pretty! Very nice. I too need some more genoise skills!
Glad to hear I’m not the only one!
Aww that’s too bad. But it sounds like you had a good time making it! 🙂 It definitely looks very pretty.
a great decoration job, but that’s a bummer about the dense layer. i get so annoyed to throw stuff out.
Yeah, I actually kept it in the fridge while I was at work to see if maybe I would have a change of heart when I returned. But I didn’t and into the garbage it went. Sad day.
My genoise was a failure – totally flat and bricklike. You have such a better outlook than me though. I was a big baby 🙂 Your frosting and strawberries look beautiful and isn’t My Life in France just the best??? I love that book. Now if only I could find my copy of Julie and Julia so I could watch all the Meryl Streep/Stanley Tucci parts and fast forward through the rest!
Oh I was definitely a baby when I found out. But at that point I was already running late for work and trying to get good photos so whatever. My Life in France was an awesomely good summer read. I’m so happy I got around to it finally!
what may have been missing in texture was definitely made up for in looks. Gorgeous looking cake!
Thanks so much. Look like you can dress up a pig with lipstick 😉