The Cake That Fell Flat...Literally
 

The Dau and I have been planning the Christmas Eve dinner and I said that I wanted to try a recipe that I found called, "Cloud Cake." I looked over the recipe and it was a little sketchy, so I thought I'd make a trial cake before the real deal. As I started to make it, I realized that it did not have any flour in it...hummmm. I made it exactly as directed and took it out of the oven at exactly the right time. It had risen over 6 inches and some spilled out on to my oven floor. It looked beautiful though! I ran upstairs to get my phone and ran right back down, only to find that the cake fell to a height of about 1-2 inches. Yikes!!! I tried a chunk of it and it was sweet, but tasteless. Basically, it was a sweet souffle in a cake pan. The dogs enjoyed it though. OK...I'm not serving that cake for the holiday. I think that I'll go with my almond cake that I've made many times before.

was it like a Pavlova?

It was basically a glorified souffle, but made in a cake pan. The texture was fluffy, but it fell to less than half the size when I took it out of the oven. There was no flour in it for structure, just 6T of corn starch. It was a weird recipe. I should have known better. Good thing I tested it first.

Recipes are also prone to errors.

My Mom actively disliked many of Martha stewart's recopes.

Oh, Martha...God love her. She would tell you to put in things like 3/8 of a teaspoon of baking soda, or have some strange ingredient that no one could find in the store and simply had to be in the recipe. I still loved watching her show and using her cookbooks. She had just enough quirkiness to keep things interesting.

Sorry your cake didn't turn out, Tropit. You are braver than I as I wouldn't have had the courage to even try it.

I liked watching Martha but would never try any of her ideas as I always felt I wasn't capable . Like Tropit said the ingredients were hard to source. I lived in the back of beyond when she was current so even ordinary ingredients weren't always available.

i hope you find a suitable alternative for your celebration cake and that it turns out the way you want.

I'm going with this almond cake recipe that I've made many times before. I don't put the green tea in it though. I'm going to make a raspberry sauce and top with some whip cream instead.

https://www.daringgourmet.com/french...a-honey-glaze/