MISTAKE CAKE

‘Oh no’, I exclaimed as I mixed the batter.

My son wondered what I was talking about, but most importantly wanted to know when the scones would be ready.

‘I put in too much milk’, I explained. ‘Now it’s ruined’, I continued.

‘It’ll be fine’, my son assured me. I wasn’t so sure.

I had set out to make my mini vanilla scones with icing as I had done a number of times these past few weeks. By now, I had my recipe memorized. Or so I thought. Somehow, I had mixed up the amount of milk and ended up adding double the amount. Since the wet and dry ingredients were already mixed together, the baking powder had already been activated and the batter needed to go into the oven as soon as possible.

I scrambled to find a solution and ended up tossing in three small handfuls of flour into the bowl with the batter and mixing it together. I then grabbed an 8-inch cake pan, lined it with the crumpled-up parchment paper that was meant for the cookie sheet, and poured the batter into the cake pan.

Normally, the 16 scones of the original recipe would bake for about 10 minutes in a 425 degrees Fahrenheit oven. I decided to leave the batter in the oven for double the amount. It rose nicely, but was still a bit light in colour. I then took it out of the oven, lifted the cake with the parchment paper out of the cake pan, and set it on a cooling rack to cool down for five minutes before my son poured the vanilla bean icing over the cake.

Coffee was made and we finally sat down to our Saturday breakfast. My son was right. It all worked out in the end and the mistake cake tasted quite good. The only thing I would do next time is let it bake for another 5 minutes longer.

Sometimes mistakes can lead to good things.