Christine, IT HAPPENS TO EVERYONE. Bless you girl, you tried! Now that it's over, you'll have a rule that you won't present a recipe that you've tweaked, until you know the time is right. Forgive yourself, and take back something that's totally yummy for everyone to try. Here's a hint...Cut it into bars so you can try it first!

Oh Christine I feel your pain......and we do understand 'cause we all have been there. Or at least I have....just ask Janet (Chancesmom) about the awful Garlic Shrimp I served her...and I do mean awful.

As for not trying new recipes on guests. Good for you if you learn that lesson, I still haven't! LOL

Hugs....

Sharon

Well, first, I cannot believe that you actually tweaked your "Mom's famous cake" recipe, LOL, see where that got you? (grin)

Actually, it does happen to all of us. My office is full of voracious beasts, waiting to fall upon anything that looks even minimally edible. So, they'd eat the cake and ask for seconds!

I don't suppose your office is like that? Sigh.

Annie

If the cake is dry....add ice-cream.
How dry was it....really? Was there a streak of flour showing? Did it immediatly fall into crumbs when you cut it? Would anyone have noticed if you hadn't cried...EWW! Dry cake?
Relax and try again....I'll bet they would be delighted toe at all the dry and not dry enough cakes you care to bring.
Linda C

Thanks for the thoughts, it eases the sting! The cake is about gone, so i guess they aren't that picky. I hate to mess with an original recipe but my high altitude usually requires it in baked goods. As a cook, I don't know what's more frustrating than to keep trying things after they keep going wrong. I'm convinced that food that I've spent all day preparing does not taste the same to me as it does to other people. It's hard to objectify my palate if that makes sense. I told my husband he is the guinea pig from now on!

Christine

Consolations. I feel your pain.

Aw, I feel so badly for your poor husband, having to sample all that home cooking. Um....yeah. :-) I'll bet he's begging and pleading "no, no, no, not that. Well, OK, ONE MORE PIECE OF CHOCOLATE CAKE BUT THAT'S IT!!"

Annie

I didnÂt think about the ice cream cover up. GENIUS!!!

I don't think it was your ratios: I think it was overbaked. And I had the same thing happen to a beautiful cake that was in a competition. Gorgeous. But inedible.
Move on. I bet the next one will be perfect!

Sherry, you very probably may be right, Christine did say that she has a new gas oven. It took me weeks to get used to my new oven when I bought it, adjusting to new equipment is certainly a learning experience.

Annie

Christine, I did the same thing here with a carrot cake I made that got RAVE reviews here on the CF. I made it, followed the recipe to a "T" and it was so dry. I was embarrassed becase everyone was oohing and ahhing over it before it was cut. I can definitely feel your pain.

Now then....... Sharon? I need to know how anything with garlic and shrimp could be so bad? hahahahha!!! What happened there?

I sure couldn't tell you what you did wrong but you definitely have my sympathy. I've sure been in that position more than once and it is painful. The last time was when I was serving DH's family pecan pie, one of his favorite desserts. I pulled it out of the oven and it had a greenish tinge and when I cut it, it was runny. I had forgotten the eggs!

Is the sheet cake you are talking about the one with the cinnamon? That's a good one.

Beverly

Beverly, Here is the recipe, it is pretty much a standard sheet cake I've seen many places. Maybe it is the temp and the gas oven. I'll get up the nerve to try it again one day...

Chocolate Sheet Cake

2 c flour
2 c sugar
2 sticks of butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c cocoa
1 c water
1/2 c buttermilk
1 tsp soda
2 eggs beaten
1 tsp vanilla

Mix flour, sugar, salt in large bowl. Put butter, cocoa, water, in saucepan, bring to slight boil. Mix into flour and sugar. Add buttermilk, soda, eggs, and vanilla. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

Frosting

1 stick butter
1/3 c milk
4 tbs cocoa
1 lb powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c chopped pecans or walnuts

Heat butter, milk, cocoa. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Stir in nuts. Frost cake while itÂs warm.

Yes, I concur, we've all done the same thing at one time or another, or many times, with me.

My co-worker recently told me a story that had me in stitches, about what he served his co-workers at a previous job. He decided to bake a chocolate cake to take to work. He used a box mix, but miss-read the amount of water to add to the recipe, and realized he added way too much water. So, he got out another box and mixed that in too. He managed to get all the batter into one pan, put it in to bake, but wasn't sure how long to bake it, since it was a lot more batter than he expected. Well, he guessed at the time and the temperature to bake it, set the timer, then went to sit in his recliner to wait for it to bake. It was pretty late at this point, but he's a night owl, so it didn't matter. But he was tired.......at 4:00 in the morning, he awoke to the sound of beep....beeep.....beeep. "Oh, no!" He ran to the oven and pulled the smoking cake out of the oven. It was charred quite black, but was still runny on the inside. Did that stop him? Of course not. He dusted the cake with powdered sugar, and off to work he went with the cake in hand. He did decide to serve it to a different department, though. Later that day, people came looking for him, wanting the recipe for that wonderful cake! It was crunchy on the outside and so moist and chewy on the inside. How did he do that?! So the moral of this story is to never apologize!

Julia Child served a dish to a friend, once, that was quite awful. Both of them suffered through it, without Julia apologizing. That was one of her steadfast rules. It's sure hard to follow, though.

Sally

I agree with Sherry, the cake was overbaked...adding 4 tablespoons more flour did not cause the cake to be dry, especially with all the liquids, eggs and a cup of butter, there is no way that little bit of extra flour would cause the dryness.

I'm not sure if you read about my Thanksgiving assignment, but I was originally asked to bring a pie by my mom. I could hear my dad in the background panicking over my pie baking abilities. I was panicking too, my poor mom in the middle. But dad and I had good reason to panic. I brought an awful, flour/cinnamon/ginger showing blueberry pie over for a cookout this summer. I thought the fresh blueberries would have more juices, but they did not. I managed to make a dry pie!! I'd most certainly rather have dry chocolate cake than a dry pie, at least you can dunk it in milk if you don't have ice cream. Maybe I'll retry a pie next summer.
Anyway... I ended up making cookies for Thanksgiving.

I once made a new recipe for pecan pie to bring to a Thanksgiving dinner. It called for maple syrup instead of corn syrup. The filling was completely glued to the crust, and the crust was completely glued to the pan. Impossible to get out without serious scraping. Servings looked like what you throw in the garbage, though it tasted great.

When I was in the 5th grade, I invited a little friend over to bake a cake. I was showing off, since I had baked plenty of cakes from scratch with my mother and she wasn't going to be home. We decided on a spice cake, to be baked in a loaf pan rather than a layer cake. My friend was suitably impressed as I operated the beater, cracked the eggs, and showed her how to properly coat the pan with Crisco, tapping the flour about so as to create just the thinnest barrier of flour between the grease and the cake (why do we do that anyway?)

Then, with something of a flourish, I popped the pan into the oven and we went out in the backyard to play while it baked.

Some time later (I have no idea how long), I saw smoke billowing out the sides of the doggie door at the top of the back stair. HORRORS!!

I raced up the stairs and ran into the kitchen. The stove look like it might blow up at any second. The smoke was streaming out of every conceivable crack and crevice. Eyes smarting, I grabbed the pan and sprinted for the back stairs. When the hot, hot, hot pan began burning my fingers through the potholders, I flung it down the stairs. Upon striking the cement slab at the bottom, the cake....er...charcoal brick, separated from the pan and broke in half. Yes, broke.

When the smoke dissipated somewhat, my friend and I were able to see a small, circular bit of unburnt cake in the very center of the charcoal brick.

I can only imagine the gyrations of my mother's emotions and thoughts when she came home to a house reeking of smoke and found that no real disaster had occurred.

I was firmly enjoined, however, to never again attempt to bake anything when she was not home.

I wish I could say that was my first and last cooking disaster, but alas, such is by no means the case.

:D

That is a great story. It reminded me not of a cooking accident I had as a child, but of the time I put dish washing liquid in the washing machine. In my seven year old brain it evoked a mixture of fascination over the quantity of bubbles and horror of how I was going to get them out of the house and what my mother would do when she saw the mess. Luckily I had enough time to clean up and when she came home she was thrilled to have not only the dishes done but a nice clean kitchen floor. :) What were they thinking leaving a seven year old home alone?!

Back to the cooking disaster, a few years ago my husband put a chicken breast in the microwave for 30 MINUTES and hopped in the shower. We had to throw the microwave away (and it was a built in) and call in a fire restoration company to wipe down every surface with special deoderizing cleaners. That is one thing you don't want in your house EVER - a protein fire.

Christine