Sweet Melissa Sundays: Doubling Up (again)

I have to double up this week. Last Sunday I was in NYC celebrating my Aunt Candy's 60th birthday, and I did get the post up for the Fallen Chocolate Souffle Cake up before I left. This post has two very different parts, so in the interest of clarity, let's divide them up, ok?

Part I: Perfect Poundcake

I took a philosophy class, I think it was called "philosophy of the human person," and my professor was awesome. Talk about a life-changing experience . . . one of the many things that I learned in that class was that absolute perfection isn't attainable, but that we can strive for excellence. I always, always, always had the perfection complex, and then if I couldn't do something perfectly I didn't want to do it at all. I just gave up. So, taking that class was great for me, because it helped me understand (what I think most people already understand) that it's ok if you don't reach "perfect," and then I started to really have fun and live a little. When I first met Dudley he introduced me to this great quote by Faulkner that I think just about sums it up: "All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible."

So, what does this have to do with the Perfect Poundcake? Let's just say that if I had to sum up my Perfect Poundcake experience it would probably read something like this: The Perfect Butterless Poundcake That's Not-So Perfect Because it Doesn't Have Any Butter, a Very Necessary Ingredient for Poundcake. Any questions?

I was mixing and stirring and sifting and feeling, I might add, very proud of myself for sifting (a step I will skip 9 times out of 10 if I think I can get away with it). I was organized, and I was dominating the perfect poundcake. Did I mention I was sifting, mixing, sifting, mixing? I was planning how I was going to wrap this up, give it away, and basically change lives in the process. Those of you who've read this blog for awhile might know that I'm an inveterate batter taster. I got my little spoon and had a taste, and goodness gracious, that batter was tasty. I was really going to change lives with this little poundcake. The recipe said the batter would be silky smooth -- mine certainly was. I poured the batter into 2 little mini loaf pans, popped it in the oven, and I started to clean up the mess. I put away the cookbook, and as I was returning to the counter I saw it: the bowl of melted butter sitting, waiting for me to pour it into the batter. I couldn't believe it. Surely this was a typo, Melissa left out the add-the-melted-butter step and that's why it didn't make it in! I pulled the book back out, reread the recipe, and I saw it, right before the silky smooth batter was the addition of the melted butter. Well, there's certainly nothing to be done about it then, except hope that a "low fat" version of the pouncake with just eggs and heavy cream is somehow a fabulous mistake, like the Post-It Note. Sorry to say, not so much a happy mistake here. Poundcake without butter is edible and veers slightly towards the spongecake end of the cake spectrum. As in, it's very spongy -- tough like kitchen-spongy. Definitely not worth the reduced calories, but all-in-all, a kind of randomly fun experiment. To sum it up, my Perfect Poundcake was most definitely NOT perfect, but that's ok, right? Now I know with empirical certainty that poundcake simply must have butter. Thanks to Michelle of Veggie Num Nums for picking this week's recipe. Visit her blog for the recipe, and to check out what a Perfect Pouncake looks like.

Part II: Fallen Chocolate Souffle Cake


Well, mistakes make life more interesting, but success is nice every once in awhile! I made the souffle cake for work, and I didn't get a chance to try it, but everyone just raved about it. The cake was super easy to make -- I'll just say that 8 eggs later and a mixer bowl-washing later, I hope it's tasty! It looked very moist and chocolatey, and I would definitely make this again. I loved that I could make it the night before and have it be super pretty and presentable the next day. This falls into the "perfect dinner party dessert" category for me. Sarah, of Blue Ridge Baker, chose this recipe. You can get the recipe here, or check out her blog anyway because it's one of my very favorites.