Tuesday, November 16, 2010

VeganMoFo IV: The Day a Gay Cake Owned Me


I almost quit MoFo today.  For reals.  While baking a pound cake earlier, my microwave burst into flames.  Burst!  Flames!  Okay.  It was a small flame, but a flame nonetheless.  I wasn't even using it.  Now the little plastic turntable piece is completely melted.  I'm afraid to use it.  We'll have to tell the landlord and hopefully it will get fixed.  Though, he still hasn't painted the walls or moved all his stuff from the backyard yet and we've been here since July.  Grr.  I am such a crankypants right now.

Then to end this day of not awesome, my gay cake was a flippin' disaster.  I think it was part ambition and part lack of attention that did me in.  After thinking about the cake and my extreme need to do a jello mold, I looked around the internet and found a rainbow jello mold with instructions here:

My idea was to flip the colors and do a rainbow jello mold perched atop a pound cake with frosting to look like clouds.

What went wrong:
1. Vegan jello needs to be perfected.  I used some that had carrageenan in it.  I should have known it wasn't going to work because a mold shouldn't be "juicy" before you flip it.  Especially,  not after two days of setting.

2. My cake was too small.  The mold was larger.  It was a bonehead move on my part for not double checking.

3. Instead of refrigerating the jello, I popped it in the freezer.  My impatience caused the mold to have distinct layers instead of everything fusing together.

All that being said, I flipped the mold over onto the cake.  For a split second, I saw the beautiful colors before  all the layers slid off...one by one.  I was left with this:

this was left on my counter after I scooped the rest up
scooped into the bundt for later because...$16 worth of jello
At this point, I wanted to cry.  Only 1.5 layers stayed on the cake.  You can witness what all of my hard work left me:

sad face
Tomorrow, I'm thinking about doing Thanksgiving stuff.  We'll see.  I still have a roundup to do.  Hope everybody is having a fantastic Tuesday! :)

23 comments:

radioactivegan said...

You weren't even using the microwave? This sounds like a job for the ghostbusters!

I'm so sorry your cake didn't turn out, but I love the idea of it! If it makes you feel any better, I've never even *tried* to make a gay, vegan cake.

Andrea said...

Just a little blip in a long string of successes. Not a big deal. Except maybe for the microwave and the landlord's casual attitude. (Next time make the jello with agar agar and fruit juice.) Onward to Thanksgiving!

x said...

Don't quit MoFo, Mo! You have been one of the best MoFoers so far so don't let your flaming microwave or wibbly wobbly jelly get you down!

Amey said...

oh no, that's a pretty crap day. A fire and a jello disaster. :( poo. I gotta say though, those two layers that ARE left on the cake look great. And, what the heck kind of vegan jello are you using with colors like that?? it's awesome!

Anonymous said...

Aw man, this takes the [gay] cake for Disastrous MoFo Attempts, methinks! Still, though, the photos are... intriguing. Colorful. Horrifyingly fascinating?

Good luck with the Thanksgiving stuff! Hope it's more successful than your cake!

omgoshimvegan said...

Eeeck. At least you were home to deal with the microwave problem.

Sorry about the cake. I know how upsetting kitchen disasters can be.

Monique a.k.a. Mo said...

Amey-It's Gefen, but I used coloring paste because the colors weren't bright at all. Some of it's opaque because I added a dollop of Tofutti sour cream.

Some of these comments have given me a giggle. I'm watching Angel right now with the dogs so I feel less crappy about my day.

Rose said...

Sorry to hear about your microwave and jello disaster...take heart! What's left of the cake looks good anyway.

Anonymous said...

Oh, no!! I want to come give you a big, gay vegan hug after all that. Your idea sounded grand, I'm sorry it didn't work out!! Kitchen disasters suck. Especially when they include random inexplicable fires.

BunzOfCinnamon said...

Good try though, Mo! Waaay better than I could have done even on my best of days.

Sarah said...

Tough day!! Poor Mo!! <3

jessy said...

oh no, Mo! don't be too sadfaced, my friend. i think it's mighty awesome of you to even give it a whirl after your microwave BURST INTO FLAMES! sweet jeebus - i would have given up. you kick ass for going forward. that does suck that $16 dollars worth of jello went to poo. i have cried over many baked goods, especially in my gluten-free days. :( i hope your evening is an awesome one, Mo - get happyfaced and we'll see you tomorrow for more MoFo fun!

Elisabeth said...

I am sorry about your cake disaster :-(

Gilding Lilies said...

That is officially a no good, very bad day! So sorry.

John McDevitt said...

OH NO! Hang in there Mo.

Amanda said...

So sorry about your rough mofoing day!

Those colors are so crazy cool, though!

T said...

Well it was still a nice idea. And the colors are super pretty!

Seglare said...

Oh, sorry to hear about your gay cake disaster. :( The layers left in the last picture look great, though! Like others above me, I'm also glad you decided not to quit MoFo, after all. You have been one of my favorite bloggers to follow (I wish I could post as often - and as creatively - myself, too!). :)

It also sounds like you need a new microwave. I would be too scared to even attempt to fix any electrical device that has had flames coming out of it...specially if you weren't even using it when this happened?! My (rather new and supposedly "good quality") hairdryer burst into flames near the plug a few weeks ago, and I didn't even dare to pull it out of the plug before turning all electricity off in our apartment.

Tisi said...

You won't believe it but just after you left a comment on my blog my stove had an electical short! I guess that's really ghost-buster-business.

Greating from Germany!
http://tisigoesvegan.blog.de

Anonymous said...

Oh Mo, what a day! But I don't think it's a disaster - the 1 1/2 layer cake looks lovely, and I'd happily eat all that jello with a spoon right from the bundt cake pan. ;)

veronica said...

Well, I think it's awesome that you attempted a rainbow cake. What you have done looks great!! And you know, now you have a really crazy jello soupy thing! In lots of colors! eh?

Thanks for sharing a disaster with us. It's always nice to know that I'm not the only one who has disasters in the kitchen! :)

VeganKitchenDiaries said...

A for effort, Mo. Also, I have had a microwave fire before and they are SCARY because for about four seconds you think it's possible you might actually DIE.

Christie said...

Commiserations about the microwave. Mine caught fire a month ago, which was sad and somewhat scary, but now I have a much better one. Hope your landlord comes through with a new one.