I made this cake for Father’s Day. Isn’t it lovely?

But, as usual, I had a problem while baking. Seriously, what’s new?

This time around, I took extra precautions and not only greased the pans but also lined them with parchment rounds and floured the sides.  I was sure that everything else would work out perfectly. Nope.

The original recipe, which I am not going to reference here because there were too many problems with it, did not indicate the diameter of pans to use. Much of my bakeware is packed away. I had two 8-inch diameter pans and three 9-inch diameter pans at my disposal, so I decided to go with the 9-inch. That was a mistake numero uno. Since I wasn’t sure of the pan size, I should have checked the cakes much earlier than I did to see if they were cooked through. As it was, the original recipe called for the cake layers to be baked for 35 minutes. I checked them after 24 minutes and they were already overcooked and dry as the Sonoran desert.

Mistake numero dos was to not then soak them with some sort of orange liqueur or orange juice. I’m certain that would have helped. Instead, I figured that the frosting (there is a lot of it!) would be enough to compensate for the dryness. Again, no.

It’s a pretty cake and if you keep an eye on it while it’s baking, I’m sure it’s a delicious cake too. I served up the 5 pieces to my dad, Connor, Dave, Sloane, and myself and then I tossed the rest of it in the trash (after I picked all the fruit off the top and had that with my breakfast the next morning).  I believe I’ve made the corrections and compensations for this to be a tasty cake. If you decide to give it a try – let me know.

In the meantime, let me say, this is just another example of why …

I Hate To BAKE

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