Cake #20: Raspberry Disaster

With the extreme heat of the Arizona summer, it's hard to get inspired to bake; however, since it has been over a month since my last caking adventure, I decided to finally head back to the kitchen.

I had seen this cute raspberry cake in one of the Wilton instruction books and thought it would be a fun and easy cake to try...boy was I wrong!

My problems arose from the usage of a whipped cream icing. Although I had never worked with it, it seemed simple enough (after all the recipe was basically just heavy cream and a couple tablespoons of sugar.) Unfortunately, I believe the cream just couldn't stand up to the heat of the Sonoran Desert - literally! No matter how hard I whipped the cream or how long I left it in the fridge, it just wouldn't remain stiff. When I tried to frost the cake, the whipped cream just wouldn't spread... and that which did stick to the sides just sank to the cakeboard moments later. I repeatedly tried chilling the cake, but nothing seems to work.

Fortunately, the vines and leaves did distract from the general sloppiness of the base layer; however, by adding the red raspberries, I was quickly able to lower the cake back to its original horridness. The fresh raspberries were dipped in red sugar, which didn't stick to the raspberries at all! Sadly, I didn't learn this lesson until after I added the first couple raspberries and scattered red sugar crystals all over the top of my cake.

Finally, due to the weakness of the whipped cream, the raspberries on the sides are completely too heavy and keep falling off...why did I bake again??? Looks like I need to stick to buttercream!!!