You know that saying “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade”?
That is really just a polite way of saying…
“Dude! Quit your whining. Slap a smile on your face, suck it up and deal with it”.
I had such high hopes for this cake Berry Surprise Cake that Mary Ann of Meet me in the Kitchen chose for today’s TWD.
And they fell flat.
A little less than an inch flat.
So I slapped a smile on my face.
Cut the cake into cubes.
Doused them in syrup.
Dumped some toffee bits into the filling, because Internet, no amount of smile slapping, sucking it up, or dealing with it is going to induce me to pay almost $4 a pound for out of season berries.
And made a Berry Toffee Surprise Cake Parfait.
This is delicious. It is light and not sweet like most desserts, and this would be fabulous with strawberries on a hot summer day.
I think I will retry then.
I think lemons are in season then too.
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Beautiful!!! 🙂 Mine fell flat as well and I made a trifle. Berries weren’t so bad here. Can’t to wait to see how it turns out when you try again!
Oh that does look good! Is that a hand in the picture trying to steal one of the yummy cakes cubes? LOL
giggle…no…that happened off camera…later….giggle.
Great save!
LOL When I got here, on your blog, I was thinking that there was no way you had made this cake with fruits! You had to have found a way to intergrate chocolate or some kind of sweet concoction instead of plain… old… berries!!! LOL …and I was right!
Mannnnn… toffee sounds great!
You have a talent for thinking on your feet huh? I like it!
Toffee bits, oh, yes, that sounds perfect. 🙂
Awesomeness! When life handed me lemons, I pouted. You made a rockin’ toffee parfait. You inspire me!
Looks Yummy!
I don’t know ANYTHING that wouldn’t be improved by a bath in caramel syrup, cream, and toffee bits! You did a fabulous job!!!!
Everything you make always looks so good! I bet that trifle would be so good with a hot cup of coffee. Yummy!
I am sorry your cake didnt turn out the way you had hoped. Good job on making it still a grea dessert I love Toffee your version sounds great.
I am sorry your cake didnt turn out the way you had hoped. Good job on making it still a grea dessert I love Toffee your version sounds great.
Oh yeah, this one was not a fave. But yeah, I think you’re on the right track. Jon said he liked it better without any cream/topping. But the fresh berries…yeah. Your parfait works.
I’ll bet it was wonderful, it sure looks it.
It was going to be $9 for me to use fresh raspberries, so I opted to splurge for organic (oooo, ahhhh) frozen raspberries for about $3, and they worked quite well. They did bleed pink into the topping after a while, but it was a pleasing pink at least.
Your toffee surprise parfaits look delish.
my local store didn’t even carry raspberries right now, i used blackberries instead. your toffee surprise looks delicious.
nice take on the recipe, toffee surprise sounds pretty delish
I love berries and I found some on sale (yay!) but I love toffee bits too — what a great substitution. This was a tricky one but it makes for some interesting stories, doesn’t it?
Way to improvise!!! Mine fell flat too! But it didnt taste good at all! 😦
That looks really good!!
Way to suck it up–never hurts to have a little chocolate in there! I made the cake knowing if it fell bad that I’d do the same thing–trifle. But I was “dumb” enough to pay out the yingyang for the fresh berries–it was my way of putting some “healthy” in to it. The berries WERE my favorite part.
Wow. Caramel and toffee would have changed my outlook when I was making my cake. Awesome!
the parfait looks soo delicious! very creative solution 🙂 mine fell flat too, so i just had a very thin cake 😉
Your parfait looks deliciously wonderful and very unique! I love how you turned it all around and made lemonade with your lemons! Well done!
Yum! That looks so good. I like the toffee… but I would love the toffee.
~Cat
Your parfait looks fantastic and I love the flavor combinations you chose! Great job!
What an ingenious idea! Looks delicious.
Good job, CC!!!
From your pictures it was looking really good until you showed the one of the cooked cake – any ideas/theories as to why if was so flat? Too dense a cake, not enough air? I’d love to know your thoughts about this.
I tend to agree that doing a berry recipe in winter is expensive but I’ll bet it would taste great come summer or autumn when they are more reasonable (you could probably get them local) and for dessert on on hot day/evening…..Can we all say Heavenly =)
That looks delicious!!! I was lucky to be able to find fresh strawberries for a good price- but I too was a little surprised to see that this cake was selected in the dead of winter! I will try it again in the summer!
the trifle is a great idea. My first one was flat, but the second time around it rose. Really a diva cake for sure!
I just got a tiny container of raspberries and made do. I did not have to worry much as my cake fell flat as a pancake. Actually I think I’ve had taller pancakes! Anyways it tasted yummy. I sure hope this next cake rises up! Your pictures are great as usual.
Life sometimes DOES give you lemons, but, when I was helping your Dad and uncle milk cows on the farm, I was given manure! What can I make out of THAT? (I want to see you wiggle out of THIS one!)
You can make manure tea for your garden you can use it to enhance the soil, and thereby be able to grow all sorts of veggies to eat the next year.
Good job on turning the cake around. The toffee bits sound yummy.
What you’re saying, then, is you can make lemons out of manure.
Yum. Love the toffee idea.
P.S.
Are evangelicals allowed to dance now? When I was a kid we would’ve been ex-communicated if we went to a DANCE!
Jerry~~I can make lemonade out of just about anything!
As for the ex-communication….we don’t tell.
I am really loving the trifles! I wish I had done it. I used meringue powder (add to flour mixture). This is a trick I use for all my cakes to help the rise and level. I think next time I try this I am gonna trifle it! Lovely creation as always.
LOL! I like how you handled the situation.
Your toffee surprise parfait looks yummy! Great photos!
~ingrid
Awesome turn around!!! Looks even better than the cake!! 🙂
Love Plan B! 🙂 Yes, definitely use lemon next time!
Uh…YUM!!!! I wish I would’ve done that. Toffee- hooray!!!
Looks delicious! Funny enough, I used the lemon=lemonade adage in a comment on another blog. Great minds!
totally awesome! you did great. I love the pictures.
That was a great idea. When mine fell flat, I continued with the berry surprise, which was the best part. My cake could have used some caramel syrup I think.
LOVE IT!! i thought the cream filling was so yummy, it could really work with *anything*. your creation proved that!
It looks delicious. That was such a great idea, I wish I would have thought about that. I agree, this would be good on a hot summers day.
Ooh, I’ll have some of yours please.
Yum, looks excellent. Nice job incorporating some chocolate!
Your surprise was excellent! I bet it tasted amazing too!
I’m a fan of the toffee surprise parfait. Nice save!
Nice save, Chic. And nobody will mind at all that it isn’t Berry Surprise, but Parfait surprise. I like your recipe better.
Your dessert looks great–nice save. =) I actually went into this one planning to make trifle, and decided not to when my cake turned out better than I expected.
You are one funny lady. And I love chocolate like it’s nobody’s business. I have enjoyed checking out your posts. You seem to have a lot of fun!
Delicious! I thought this would be better as a trifle/parfait too.
Oh, that’s so creative! your toffee parfait looks really yummy!
I think I may prefer this to the original plan!
I love this! Brilliant!
I think parfait/trifle is the way to go with this cake…I should have hacked my sunken cupcakes to bits and tossed them with chocolate. Nice job making lemonade from lemons…
oh wow! i saw those toffee bits and thought yummmmmmm. excellent improvisation:)
Toffee? TOFFEE!?!? YUM. Great job served up with some outrageous photos!
What a great idea! Everything looks so yummy! great job, as usual! 🙂
haha. you sure are positive. That’s what I like about you. If it were me, I would have probably wept a bucket followed by trashing the cake down the sink. I’m horrible, yes i know. haha.
And the parfait looks amazing! toffee?! gosh…
Ciao ! I love your idea and the toffee part looks so delicious ! I used frozen berries they are very expensive here too (and not too much flavor either !)
I think our cakes are cousins! Love that you made a parfait out of it.
Nancy
Wow, I love the variation. So cool. I love the lightness of it too.
AmyRuth
I missed coming around last week…good thing I got here eventually as this looks really wonderful!