In my blog hopping I came across this picture (shown here on the left) of deliciousness and knew I had to make it – seriously, the way it’s oozing – yum! And my mom loves chocolate Turtles, so mother’s day was my excuse to make this Praline Turtle Cake from Ur Baking Me Crazy – head over there for the recipe. Below I’ll document my version, using her recipe. Beware, it’s not pretty.
First problem – I’m out of wax/parchment paper. And of course it’s late and I don’t want to run to the store. I think “eh, freezer paper is close enough, right?” – lesson learned: WRONG! You put the paper down inside of your pans then pour carmel goo on top. See, looks great:
Then as it cools a little you pour the cake batter on top – then bake the whole thing (um, just ignore that horribly dirty oven – I’m holding out for a new one so why would I waste time cleaning this one!)
After baking, they cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then you turn them over to get the cakes out. In theory you’ll have a nice layer of carmel praline on top of each layer of cake. This is where things went waaaay wrong and I stopped taking pictures for fear of blog ridicule. If anything the freezer paper was worse than using no paper at all. I scrapped the carmel goo off in chunks and tried to drop them randomly on top of the cake. Then you drizzle it in fudge but I didn’t have any so I used magic shell (fudge flavor) but then thought that wouldn’t ooze so I added chocolate syrup. And carmel syrup – it was no holds bars at this point!
Then you let the cake cool completely – another lesson learned – DON’T RUSH the COOLING! I was impatient so I just went ahead and stacked the warm cakes – well, they fell apart. I grabbed some toothpicks and tried to hold some of it together. At this point everything is funny – I wasn’t taking pictures but my husband thought the blog world needed them:
Alright, moving on. The recipe calls for “your favorite chocolate icing” – well, I knew I wouldn’t be able to frost this mess. So I’m thinking ganache – dripping chocolate topping. But I don’t have cream – a key ingredient. So we make something up using melted chocolate chips, butter, and cream cheese. Who knows. But I think it helped a little with the look:
So I showed up to Mother’s Day dinner with this – one ugly cake. But let me tell you – don’t judge a book by its cover, this thing was DE-LI-CIOUS!! (just watch out for those pokey bites – hidden prizes of toothpicks) Now, to try it again…..
Thanks for checking out this post from www.SugarBeeCrafts.com – – click on over to read it in its entirety – you’ll love it!
It was delicious! Warm served with ice cream…mmmmmmmm. Bring me more!
Loved your humerous story. Sometimes our messes actually taste the best. Much better than picture perfect and nasty.
This made me laugh. Did you laugh as you messed up? or were you grumpy about it?
omg you’re making me hungry! I’m stopping by from the tues blog hop
Tried this today and it is very yummy! I made it in a rectangular pan like a sheet cake, I was too nervous to do the round pans after reading your post! My caramel didn’t seem cooked enough, but it still tasted great all together! I’d make it again which for me is the true test of a good recipe!!
Tracey
this sounds fantastic!
The fabulous thing about mothers is; anything their child makes for them is beautiful. from kindergarteners gluing pop sticks to a cerial box to wonderful messes like this! lol.
I really want to bake this…