The FUGLIEST Delicious Vanilla Cake You'll Ever See

This cake is technically not really a total fail... she's just not the prettiest of cakes.  I blame that SOLELY and 100% on the frosting however, and not the cake.

The cake was delightful.  Fluffy, cakey, and moist... it was almost perfect.

I made the frosting too thick though or something...  I should have just thinned it out a bit I guess... but I didn't think it was going to turn out so... fugly.

Anyway, here's what I did:

I followed a standard "Yellow" cake recipe, and did not deviate from it.

Dry ingredients mixed.

Wet ingredients mixed.  This step was a little tricky because you had to add the eggs slowly one at a time, beating the mix in between.

Then, I slowly alternated between adding the dry mixture and the milk and vanilla mixture.

A little tedious, to be sure, but look at the consistency of the batter after all was said and done:

Very silky smooth!

Anyway, I prepared two 9" cake pans by greasing them lightly and then slightly coating them in flour.

Half the batter in each one, and into the oven for about 30 mins at 350°.

Meanwhile, I prepared some frosting.  Just plain vanilla icing.


I excised a whole schwack of vanilla seeds from the last of one of my nice fresh pods I had been saving. and then soaked it in some high-alcohol content rum for about an hour.  

I don't know if this helped leach out any of the flavour or not... but I figured it was better than just putting them into the frosting by themselves...


Anyway, then it was just some milk and a ton of icing sugar.  I'd normally use butter... but I had run out... so it was skim milk... which maybe wasn't the smartest of choices...

Anyway, it looked fine, and tasted  even finer... although in retrospect, I think I might have suspected it could have been a little too thick by this point already...


So, when the two cake halves come out of the oven and have cooled sufficiently (at least 30 mins) on my wire rack, I grab one and start frosting.


I know right away that something is wrong.


The frosting is sticking more to itself and the spatula than to the cake.  In fact it is so comical that it is almost as though the cake is repelling the icing.


I've had cakes where the frosting is so runny that it is more like a glaze and I didn't want that.  Even though the runnier the icing the easier it is to apply - literally just 'pouring' and spooning the icing onto the cake rather than spreading or smearing - I wanted it to be a thick frosting.


<sigh>


I'd read of a trick whereby tucking small pieces of parchment paper under the cake can keep your plate clean... and I tried that... but quickly abandoned that because it caused much frustration.


So... the cake got frosted all over, and in-between the layers.  There was a lot of frosting.  It just didn't look pretty.


:)


In fact, it looked rather... fugly.

But oh well, it tasted absolutely delicious, and was one of the best cakes I've ever made, in terms of flavour, and texture.  It was very soft and incredibly moist.  It just had the unfortunate happenstance of being brutally raped and horribly maimed by my abusive frosting.

So, not entirely or truly a fail, but for next time, I will DEFINITELY think of something a little softer for the icing.  Using butter which has warmed to room temperature for example, spreads like... well, butter.  Should have done that.


Oh well.  It may be the fugliest delicious vanilla cake you'll ever see, but it has NO problem finding gaping, salivating maws.