What To Do With A Flopped Cake

Dubai: Stuck to the pan, leaked from the sides, overmixed, overbaked, collapsed centres, lack or excess of ingredients … the list never ends for baking disasters. But how do you make up for all that time and effort put into your flopped masterpiece? Make a pudding instead!

Personally, I was looking for a hack or two to work around a failed cake when my Editor suggested I could make a pudding base out of it. While I’m still yet to try it, I was intrigued well enough to put my thinking cap on and do a little research.

The best way to cover up a sunken cake is to load up on the frosting (not too much, just enough). Frosting your cake on its exteriors or just slicing and adding a layer of chocolate frosting will give your cake a whole new look. Top it off with a few slices of fruit and you’ll have a masterpiece on your hands.

Swedish Flop: Yeasted Cake, Streusel Crumb Topping, Layered With Ermine Frosting, And Homemade Red Currant Jam. So Delicious. I've Made It Twice In A Week. Recipe From Midwest Made By Shauna Sever :

Food by Gulf News was also able to get in touch with Chef Luisa Fernanda Caicedo, Executive Chef at Mondoux, Dubai, who said based on her expertise: “One of the easiest ways to salvage a flopped cake is to make a cake sandwich. Cut it in half and use all the ingredients that you were originally going to use as decoration on the outside of the cake as a centre filling instead. This means that you might have a middle layer of frosting, fruits, nuts and any other ingredients that you had in mind. The remainder of the frosting can be used outside and all around. It might not be perfect but if done neatly, no one will know.”

Got guests coming over soon and a flopped cake? Try cutting it into tiny pieces, dipping in a sweet chocolate or vanilla sauce, place it on parchment paper and let it cool for the night. These tidbits work like a charm for those who’ve encountered a baking disaster. If it still seems like a task, drizzle a spoonful of chocolate and top it off with a few roasted nuts or fruit.

If you still don’t want to cut it into massive cubes, maybe cut it into smaller cubes and layer it up one by one with frosting and fruits in a parfait glass. Also, whipped cream works.

A Flopped Cake Archives

For Michelin-star chef Massimo Bottura, his perfect dessert tartwas due to be sent out when it was dropped. That resulted in him renaming the dish as'Oops! I’ve dropped the lemon tart!' dessert, which is also a signature dish on the menu. This eventually became an example of a perfectly imperfect dish. When a carefully baked tart falls apart, there isnothing that a little chocolate can’t solve. You could be like Chef Massimo, and go a little crazy with your presentation.

If you’ve got a large quantity of biscuits lying around and don’t know what to do, grind them into a powder for your pudding base. Pour in a sugary mix of cream cheese at topping, mixed with gelatine and chill it overnight, because tomorrow morning you will have yourself an easy no-bake cheesecake ready to be served.

Did you know? With the extra biscuit packets lying around your house, you could just bake a biscuit cake. All you need is a handful of ingredients – biscuits, milk, sugar, chocolate, coffee powder and a little bit of baking soda – and 30 minutes.

Swedish Flop Cake Table For Seven

6. As you allow your cake to bake, you can make the icing sugar by mixing sugar, coffee powder, melted chocolate and butter.

Cake pops are easy to make and taste wonderful as well... after all it is the cake you baked Image Credit: Pixabay/Pexels.com

Another hack to change your cake is to break it and roll it into balls, also known as cake pops. Dip it in frosting or chocolate sauce, roll it in sprinkles and leave it to chill overnight. Maybe you can even add tiny wooden skewers to amp it up.

Flop Proof Hot Milk Vanilla Sponge Cake

Dubai-based Nama chocolate founder and creator of The Kakao Guy Mhon Lee also swears by cake pops and he said: “Mash the cake with some cream and add a little flavour (you can go crazy on the mix). Shape into small pops and coat with chocolate or sprinkles. You can also eat it like a cake toast, slice the cake and toast in the oven … it makes for the perfect afternoon tea break snack.”

Who said cake and ice cream don’t go well? If you can manage to pull off an ice cream cake, you are undoubtedly creative with your food. And if you don’t want to change the entire cake, maybe cut a slice, add a scoop of ice cream on the side and drizzle a little bit of chocolate across it. After all, good presentation proves you know what you’re doing.

Baking does come with perks and pitfalls. But you know what they say, mistakes are proof that you are trying. Know of any such ways to fix your flops when it comes to cooking? Tell us about it at food@

Flip Flop Cake

This website stores cookies on your computer. These cookies are used to improve your experience and provide more personalized service to you. Both on your website and other media. To find out more about the cookies and data we use, please check out our Privacy Policy.Last night, I got home from work and had to muster up every ounce of energy I had to whip up a cake and pop it in the oven. We are having my dad over for Easter dinner tonight (Good Friday) and I’m making birthday cake for dessert. April 19th will be my dad’s 78th birthday! I decided to make a Chocolate Layer Cake.  This is one of my favourite recipes, and it always works! Except for last night. What a perfect time for a cake to flop – it coincided perfectly with another rare and untimely event – I ran out of flour! Yep, I was so relieved when I scraped up just enough flour from the jar to make the recipe in the first place. I literally have no more than a few teaspoons of white flour in the house and its Good Friday, one of the only days in a year when stores are actually closed for the entire day. I’m famous for having to “re-do” things, but I simply didn’t have the time or energy to pull it off this time. Instead, I thought of a creative solution to my predicament.

I had whipped up a double recipe of my favourite chocolate cake recipe and popped it in the oven.I knew that a single recipe was not big enough for two round pans, but the double was a bit too much. I should have taken some of the extra batter and made a few cupcakes, but I was honestly just too lazy. I knew the cakes would need additional time, because of the additional batter, so I wasn’t surprised when the cakes weren’t cooked in the suggested 30 minute bake time. I have always felt that my oven is a bit out of sync and that the actual temperature is a lower than the setting. I sometimes set the oven a few degrees higher to compensate, but I was too tired to think of this.

After the first check at 30 minutes of baking time, I proceeded to set the timer in 5 minutes intervals to stay on top of things and not over bake the cake. I continued to bake and check regularly for what seemed like forever. I was totally exhausted and just wanted to go to bed. Finally, after what I am guessing was more than an hour of bake time, I tested the cakes and the poker came up clean – finally!  It was not until I went to remove them from the oven that I realized that the oven really didn’t seem that hot. Well, that’s because sometime between the original 30 minute timer and the time I removed them, I must have turned the oven “off” instead of the timer. Ugh! Within 10 minutes both cakes had sunk ~ one not so bad, as it must have had slightly less batter to begin with, but the other would have made a a great cake if the party theme was “sink holes”! I decided to cover them with a towel on the cooling rack and deal with it this morning. 

Summer Flip Flops Decoset With 1/4 Sheet Edible Cake Topper Background

Starting over really was not an option as I had no flour in the house (like that has ever happened before!) I could have borrowed from a neighbour, but I feel like I have done that a few too many times already. It seems I am often over looking a necessary ingredient. So, I decided to proceed and see what the interior of the cakes looked like. My plan was to make a 4 layer cake by cutting the two round cakes in half. When I cut them open, I realized that one cake really was fine. It had only sunk slightly and was cooked all the way through.