January 20

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.

.

Published by

chocolatechic

Just an average wife, mother, and homeschooling woman

68 thoughts on “January 20”

  1. 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!

  4. 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!

  9. 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!!!!

  13. 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.

  15. 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.

  18. 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?

  21. 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.

  28. 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 =)

  29. 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!

  31. 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.

  32. 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!)

  37. 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!

  39. 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.

  46. 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.

  53. Nice save, Chic. And nobody will mind at all that it isn’t Berry Surprise, but Parfait surprise. I like your recipe better.

  54. 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.

  60. 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…

  64. 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…

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