Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Homemade Living: Failed Cake Turned Into Cake Pops

My brother recently had a birthday, and David and I made plans to hang out at his house to watch a movie and celebrate. I thought it would be nice to make him a cake to bring along, so I got to work on the cake I always make for birthdays (recipe here).

I've made this cake many times before with great success, but this time, something went horribly wrong. The cakes came out of the oven just fine, but when I went to frost the cake, it totally fell apart on me. As I tried to fix it, things only got worse.

Just in case you aren't grasping the colossal level of failure from my words, I thought I'd share the embarrassing photographic proof.



I mean really, what the heck is that?! (I finally figured out that my frosting was too thick so it wouldn't spread evenly.) I was feeling pretty defeated but didn't want to waste the cake. It still tasted really good, but it was clearly a big mess.

I remembered a while back one of my friends made some cake pops and she was telling me about the process. You start with a baked and cooled cake, then crumble it all up. Mix in enough frosting to make a "dough" out of the cake and form into balls, then dip into melted candy coating and let harden. I figured it was worth a shot to try and I had nothing to lose, so I made cake pops out of my failed cake.

Sorry about the scratches - we do have a kitten after all!

They didn't turn out perfect, but hey, I was proud of myself for thinking outside the box and trying to salvage my epic cake fail. Next time I'll just make my frosting a little thinner!

Have you ever managed to save a baking fail?

~Tammy


This week in the Homemade Living series, I am joined by Mary and Jackie in posting about how we incorporate homemade items into our lives. Next week Daisy, Staci, and Sue will be up. If you have some free time, please check out the other posts in this weekly series!

52 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday to your mom !!
    Looks like a very cute ,creative, yummy save !

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  2. oops ~ Brother lol
    Give your mom a hug too ~ giggle

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  3. Talk about taking the lemons that life hands you and making lemonade! Or in this case, cake :)

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  4. Haha, I still would have eaten the one that didn't turn out well. I bet it still tasted good :)

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  5. Mmmm cake pops sound delicious! Good save!

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  6. Yum, that cake pop looks good. It's so cute!

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  7. Been there done that. What a great idea to salvage into pops, yum! Nicely done friend :)

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  8. Those look soooo good! I'm sorry about the failed cake, but the cake pops turned out great! Awesome to turn that into a success for your brother! :)

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  9. That cake pop looks so yummy!
    Greetings, RW & SK

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  10. Genius -- I've had lots of fails -- but that's how we get better. :)

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  11. Belo aspecto...Espectacular....
    Cumprimentos

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  12. I love this honest post - it was actually refreshing to see YOU are human Tammy! The save was genius though! Great job! Looks yummy!

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  13. Oh Tammy I laughed (sorry) as I have had many a failure like that and it ended up not being fixed. I love the idea of cake pops. :) B

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  14. What a great save! And a yummy one too. :)

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  15. I believe kitchen failures were created to keep us honest! Cute cake pops :)

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  16. You are one smart chick.. grin.. xo

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  17. I had to laugh! That was how I first tried making cake-pops. Our cake flops turned into cake pops!!

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  18. Now that was an epic save!!! I love how the cake pops turned out. You are one smart cookie. :-)

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  19. I can see why you didn't want to throw the cake away. Even as a near fail, it looks like chocolate decadence! Kudos to you on the save with Cake Pops!

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  20. Great save! I'll have to remember that it it happens to me. Not much chance though as I hardly ever bake.

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  21. Lol! I've been there many times.. lots of flops that is;) Way to save the day!! Happy birthday to your brother! Cheers, leslie

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  22. You turned an oopsie into a huge success. I'm so loving those cake pops! Did your brother enjoy them as well?

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  23. What a pity, but the cake pops looks so great. I think your brother must have enjoyed it well. Ups and downs come in our life always. But the way you changed the floppy cake to cake pops to make your brother happy is a good work.

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  24. What a great idea! I'll bet your brother was happy with the end result and you didn't waste a thing!

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  25. wow, that's an impressive save!! and happy birthday to your bro!

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  26. What a great way to save a "fail" :) Love it!

    So happy to meet a fellow "middle of nowhere woods girl"!

    Your newest follower,
    Erin
    Yellow Birch Hobby Farm
    http://yellowbirchhobbyfarm.blogspot.com

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  27. Happy Birthday to your brother...Though, the cake doesn't excellently made but its still yummy!

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  28. Woo hoo! Epic culinary save! Good for you... and they look great!

    Happy birthday to your brother.

    Wishing you a lovely day.
    xoxo

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  29. Mmmm... well done you for salvaging the cake!

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  30. My apple muffins are still a complete failure and I have temporarily given up on them. Love that you made something out of your fail.

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  31. Looks exquisitely chocolately....and cake is all about the flavor, not the shape. You may have created the next big craze...move over mini cupcakes, cake pops are here!!!

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  32. Wow, impressive save! Had to admit I had a little giggle at the first picture. We all mess up sometimes and you really turned it around! I've been messing up my sourdough attempts this week. Unfortunately, they haven't turned into sourdough pops!

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  33. What a great "lemon aide out of lemons" story! I probably would have tossed the whole thing out if frustration. You really saved the day (and the cake) with the beautiful Pops! I bet your brother thought the pops were way more fun then the cake anyway.

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  34. Didn't turn out perfect? They look great! Very smart way to save the cake!

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  35. Nice save! They turned out great. I do have an epic failure time and time again and it's cake pops, hahha. I cannot get them to not slide off of the stick (and we have the kit meant for them, lol).

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  36. My family usually eats it anyway! That is, as long as it tastes good! Great save on your part!

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  37. That looks delicious! Even the "failed" cake!

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  38. Oh my goodness that cake sounds rich and amazing! What a nice sister you are. Great idea to figure out a way to make them look cute. :) And yes, I've had plenty of failures - I much prefer when it's dessert and not dinner that fails. :)

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  39. Cake pops are yummy. Kind of a pain to make though. Great save!

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  40. Good save. I usually toss the epic fails. If it turns out ok but I still don't like it, I make my husband take whatever it is into work. Those guys eat anything.

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  41. Oh sorry to hear and see your cake flop..But happy to see you defeated the error and made wonderful cake pops yay!
    Enjoy x

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  42. I've had so many fails, I guess that's one of the reasons I don't like baking. I'm so glad your quick thinking saved the day, the cake pops look pretty ;)

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  43. Wow, it did look pretty scary at first. So glad to hear you were able to save it. It turned out looking pretty tasty.

    Hugs~

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  44. Good save and what a great idea! You're so sweet to bake a cake!

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  45. my first thought was, yep a bit of a mess but I bet it tastes good. ;) Great save!!

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  46. My mom & sister & I made a few hundred cake pops for my nephew's graduation party this summer. We made two kinds - some that were poured into a cake pop maker, just like a little waffle iron. And some that were crumbled with icing and rolled into balls, chilled & dipped as you did. Those ones were SO MUCH BETTER! Delicious!
    Nice save, the cake pop picture is adorable.

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