When life hands you unbaked cake, make a truffle!

First, HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone!  To treat Jake and I, I decided to make a most delicious looking cake that I saw in the October issue of Better Homes and Garden, a "Walnut Cake with Caramel Whipped Cream."

Right?  Doesn't it just make your mouth water?!!?

But I should have followed one of my most basic life principles: if you go into something with low expectations, you'll always be pleasantly surprised!  Now, on first glance, this defeatist tenet seems absolutely at odds with my generally positive optimism.  However, I look at it the other way around: I always want my outcomes to be better than I would have thought.  Hence, no or low expectations = happiness!

Yet I did not follow this rule this time.  From the recipe, it was going to be one of the most involved cake making efforts of my life.  And I was psyched.  I wanted my cake to look just like the picture.

So I followed the extensive directions to a T.  I processed the nuts and flour together...

 I beat together the egg yolks, orange rind, orange juice, sugar, and salt until "very thick and pale..."

 I whipped the egg whites, cream of tartar, and 2 Tbs. sugar until the peaks were "stiff but not dry..."

 I gently folded these three concoctions together....

 and put them in a tube pan with a removable bottom.  I baked it for 35 minutes for 325 degrees--a toothpick didn't come out clean, so I put it in for another 5 minutes.  A toothpick appeared to come out clean at the 40 minute mark--the upper limit of the recipes baking time.  I took it out, and inverted it on a soy sauce bottle. 

No more than 30 seconds later, I heard a "plop."  And I'm sure you can guess what happened.  I would have taken a picture, but the scene was just too ugly.  An underbaked cake was lying in a heap on my counter, and the soy sauce bottle was much worse for the wear.  I should have trusted my baking instinct--it still felt a bit wiggly, but I didn't want to overbake it.

Soy Sauce bottle got the worst of the gooey mess.

 "Well, when life hands you an underbaked cake, make a truffle" was my first thought.  So I scooped up the cake parts and through it on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.  I turned the oven back on to 325 degree and popped the pieces back in.  5 minutes later--still gooey.  10 minutes later--still gooey.  15 minutes later--how in the world did the people who tested the recipe get it baked in 40 minutes?!?  20 minutes later--finally set up.  Good grief.

Cake pieces baking in oven.

In the meanwhile, I was beginning to make the caramel whipped cream.  The first part of that recipe is just making candied walnuts.  Once again, followed the recipe to a T, except I used a pan that I *thought* was 2 qt. saucepan.  I had a verifiable 1 1/2 qt. saucepan, but the magazine's tip was to not use a pan too small as it could overflow.  Well it also said not to use a pan too big--which apparently this sauce pan was--because the water could evaporate before the sugar melts.  And that's what happened. But guess what did melt?  My spatula.

 *Sigh.*  Sometimes things just don't go your way.  I added more water to the pan--the sugar immediately syruped again, and I waited for a few more minutes until I thought it looked thick enough.  The candied walnuts now sit, hardening (hopefully enough!), waiting to be folded into the whipped cream.

 And then later in the day, I returned to this ever evolving project to make the whip creamed.  I whipped it good (do do do do dooo, you must whip it!) and folded in the candied walnuts I made earlier.  I also made the caramel sauce, but apparently didn't let it actually caramelize...so the color isn't there, but it still tastes yummy!

Then I cubed up the cake...

Poured the caramel sauce all over and topped it off with the whipped cream concoction.

This better be the best dessert I've ever had in my life!

UPDATE: So if you've made it to the end of this extremely long post, you may be wondering:
1. Alyssa, was it the best dessert of your life?  Close.  The only thing it was missing was some chocolate.
2. Alyssa, do you realize that you actually made a trifle instead of a truffle?  Now I do.  I feel ridiculous.  But I think it's very appropriate to how this whole entire cake making adventure turned out.  Of course I tried to make something else...only I couldn't even get the name of that one right!