The $25 coffee cake.
Posted by VictoriaMar 3

Monday was March 1st and to celebrate February being over and the one-year anniversary of owning our first house together, I decided to bake! The inspiration behind my choice of baked goods was this great vintage bundt cake pan I had borrowed from Di a few months ago. I have been dreaming of coffee cake since Christmas and today was the day I was finally making it!

I quickly realized I had no ingredients, so I took in the sunshine and headed to the store and spent $25.00 on things I would need. I prepped my ingredients, shooting as I went along as I always do.

Things seemed to be taking me a bit longer right from the get go. It took forever to peel and core these apples, and then I had to sift (what?) the flour.

Hmmm no sifter…would my strainer work? Why not? It’s all an adventure!! It took about 20 minutes to sift 2.5 cups of flour, but I persevered.

I let things sit when they were supposed to sit, and mixed as per the directions, but something was not feeling right. I wondered if I should add some more liquid- water, oil or another egg? I usually would, but this was my first attempt at baking so I stuck to the recipe.

The real turning point came when I realized this recipe called for a shallow long pan, not a bundt pan. The bundt pan was the whole reason for making the cake in the first place! We do not have a shallow long pan.

This was the only pan we had, so I went ahead and used the bundt pan and decided to cook it a little longer. My coffee cake fantasy was not going as planned.

I had a deep sense of foreboding as I went to put my little coffee cake in the oven. Even someone who has never baked before (like me) knows when it says “pour the batter into the pan” and you have something the consistency of baked turkey stuffing that you have to “scoop” into the pan with a spoon, that no baking miracle is going to save you.



Needless to say- I made a disastrous $25.00 coffee cake. It crumbled out of the pan, dry as a bone.

Mike was sweet and said he would try it as it had taken me 2 hours in total to put it all together. Upon eating it he said,” Wow, It tastes like hot flour.” He was being kind.
But the afternoon was not a complete ruin. Mike and I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. Might as well enjoy your failures along with your successes.
Have a great week. Isn’t March grand?
11 comments
Comment by karen on March 3, 2010 at 9:32 am
what a great laugh first thing in the morning for me! thank you!
Comment by Stephanie Lavoie on March 3, 2010 at 9:32 am
lol! Not sharing the recipe this time?..lol It’s for the better, I’ve never been successful at baking – I’ve tried muffins and loafs and they never rise…
Happy March:)
Comment by Jody on March 3, 2010 at 9:58 am
But the pan is beautiful!
Comment by diana coatsworth on March 3, 2010 at 10:07 am
that is hilarious!
best part is mikes face and that he said “hot flour”… oh, not good!
so so funny
Comment by Kim Cunik on March 3, 2010 at 11:13 am
Well Bella, not guts, no glory or coffee cake for that matter. For future, Martha Stewart says you can run a whisk throught the flour instead of sifting. It apparently does the same thing. I think she’s getting lazy. But the photos were beautiful & so are you.
Comment by carole Adilman on March 3, 2010 at 11:13 am
Thanks for the laugh. Even Mike couldn’t pretend it taked ok!
Comment by Winnie on March 3, 2010 at 11:36 am
That reminded me of trying to bake a Pound Cake with a pound of butter decades ago in England. The cake was like a piece of rock with butter dripping out from the pan.
Since then I have never tried to bake another cake.
Your post was funny,so was Michael’s facial expression.
Comment by kerri on March 3, 2010 at 12:35 pm
I am still laughing as i write this. Your face as you put the “cake” in the oven and Mike’s while testing it!
I have had disasters like that before and all of them came flooding back with that post. Thanks. Funny.
kerri
Comment by sarah on March 3, 2010 at 1:17 pm
my mom had that pan when i was growing up! but it was green outside, instead of yellow! (sorry, avocado instead of goldenrod…)
try eating the cake with ice cream? sort of how you would with a apple crumble? or with vanilla yogurt? or plain yogurt, and honey?
Comment by hinners on March 3, 2010 at 8:38 pm
oh, the foreboding look! amazing crazy face miss vic! xoxo
Comment by amy on March 10, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Why attempt such things?? You just buy one and pretend you made it!