Another Culinary Disaster

On the Dessert Richter Scale, or perhaps it's time we ceded to reality and named it the Ruther Scale, the tally is bleak.

Despite being able to finnagle good key lime pie, tiramisu, chocolate cheesecake, pecan bundles and even chocolate truffles, I am bedeviled by such infamous culinary faux pas as sweet gunk, chocolate frittata crunch, cheese fluff crater and my first effort at chocolate truffles. (Okay, my first several efforts at chocolate truffles.)

And now we can add chocolate cake to the list of my failures.

When Erin came home yesterday, she eyed the cake. She couldn't believe that chocolate cake could be ruined by any chef, regardless of their credentials in botching desserts. *slow smile*

But that was before she tasted my chocolate cake. She assured me, as she carved herself a piece, that it could not possibly be bad. And then she took a bite and chewed. She looked up at me.

And she began to laugh.

She took another bite, and hadn't swallowed before she started giggling again. She simply couldn't say an affirmative, positive word.

Finally, after many attempts to say something before busting out in laughter, she assured me that although it did not taste like chocolate cake, with a different name it might not seem bad. I forget what she came up with.

And so we have another renamed dessert, thanks to my ability to create astounding culinary failures in the field of baking.

It's just so sad, because I come from such good baking stock! My mom's a BRILLIANT baker, and a fantastic cook, period.

Oh well. This apple fell far from the apple pie.