Disaster in the form of a Cake Mix

Before I even started this shortcut, I should have realized that this was a bad idea. A friend from work was coming over for dinner Sunday Night. Friday morning he had let me know that his fiancee would be unable to come with him, so I decided to cut out a couple steps from my traditional having a dinner party routine. I thought well, we can just start with chips and salsa and conclude with a Barefoot Contessa cake mix. Full disclosure, I had never tried this cake mix or any other mix from the Barefoot Contessa before. Although I had baked her chocolate cupcakes with PB icing and those came out slightly dry.

It looked so promising as you can see from the box. Deep dark chocolate.. with Raspberries on top... how can you go wrong.

I followed the directions ( which were slightly strange since they have you cream a part of the mix into the butter before adding the eggs... I was worried that might create a less tender cake, but I went on valiantly. I also thought the "jar of fudge sauce" as an ingredient seemed hokey... and an unnecessary addition of corn syrup, but i followed the instructions to the T. I put the single cake pan into the oven, set the time, and walked away with confidence. The mix warned not to overbake, so I made sure to take it out of the oven right away.

After the cake cooled it seemed a little on the dry and crusty side. Then I thought about the oven that came with the house and realized it is probably not terribly accurate. This worried me so I melted down some jam with a tad of water. Perforated the whole cake and poured over the jam. I figured it would help the dryness.

I made the ganache icing, iced the cake, and proceeded with my main course for the evening. Next thing I know ... the cat is on the counter and has licked off a quarter of the icing... I wanted to cry. Ian ran down from upstairs and said.. well why don't you just use the icing that has dripped off to reice that portion and we just won't serve that side. So I did just that.

The cake made a pretty presentation at the table, but in the end the cake was dry and rather unappealing... not at all what I expected from a 15 dollar cake mix. Duncan Hines makes a better cake looking back on it. Oh well.. at least now I know I need an oven thermometer.