I was looking forward to this baking assignment, heck I voted for it, and the picture looked so pretty but apparently I have had troubles with directions lately. I reviewed the ingredients and I had everything except the fresh orange which I bought. What I didn’t notice was the picture was the Bonne Idee that included poached oranges three more additional oranges which I didn’t have. My day was jammed packed enough and an additional shopping trip and poaching oranges was not going to fit the plan.
I made the cake which was simple enough but some how I managed to mess that up too. I cooked it for 20 minutes and a toothpick came out clean so I took it out thinking it was done. When I removed the cake from the pan, it fell in the center. This picture does not do the damage justice. My husband said “what happened?” Clearly I should have baked it the additional 5 minutes. This is one of the bigger flops I have made lately and I should re-do it to redeem myself but that is not in the plan.
To see something that was baked correctly go here.
CafeMomCooks 
I'm sure your cake tasted great! It's a good thing this wasn't a more complicated cake to make! My cake flopped, too, but I didn't mind too much since this cake didn't take as much time to make as something like a buche de noel!
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You cut the cake and eat it. It makes no difference that there is a crack. Happy baking, that matters!
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It certainly looks pretty and I'm sure it tasted great.
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I have certainly had my fair share of baking oopses lately. I totally empathize! Hope it at least tasted good! (PS I missed the part about the poaching orange quantity too.. )
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I have certainly had my fair share of baking oopses lately. I totally empathize! Hope it at least tasted good! (PS I missed the part about the poaching orange quantity too.. )
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I think your cake looks pretty good Diane – a little hollow will not detract from the taste. I didn't do the poached oranges deliberately – I take my baked goods to work, and I couldn't imagine how I was going to get this cake to work with poached oranges on top.
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I actually am guessing that the oranges on top of our were covering many a sunken top lol ! I actually had to read the directions a couple of times to confirm that we were only baking this for 20 minutes. I thought that sounded really fast. Since I was using that narrow braided pan I pulled it out at 20 (mine was like a big Twinkie in shape) thinking it had to cook faster than a full round pan. The center was still a bit undone, especially as we got closer to the middle. But by the time we have all that syrup added it was all just kind of a big moist situation. In a good way. Funny how this was to be a \”simple\” recipe but so many of us ended up re-reading the direction multiple times (I lost the part about where to add the juice and was getting a bit frustrated LOL). Great job and another one down !
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I baked mine for a bit longer than 20 minutes (even in my minified pans) but yes, that's the awesome thing about the poached fruit – it can hide a multitude of sins!
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I feel like as long as a cake tastes great, it really isn't a baking flop. 🙂
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It's all about the taste and I'm sure your cake was delicious!
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I have so many days like this Diane! It's great to hear I'm not the only one :)It does look good in the photo!
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You know, if you hadn't mentioned the falling the centre, I would never have known. It looks so fluffy and so perfectly turned out. (And I rarely read the instructions perfectly either, because who has time for instructions. 🙂
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It's frustrating when a cake doesn't turn out – but, as long as it tastes good, I count it as a win.
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As long as it tastes good it is a success 🙂
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