When Everything Goes Wrong

Saturday night I set out to make a dessert to bring to church on Sunday. I started off alright with a great recipe from one of my favorite websites but it was all down hill from there. When baking a dessert the most important rules I have ever learned are - always bring all the ingredients to room temperature before beginning and always preheat the oven. I did not follow these rules. Here's what I did wrong:

- I used a recipe I've never used before but didn't allow myself time to really read through or get acquainted with said recipe.
- I decided to tweek the recipe
- I chose to make this cake as my husband was headed out the door, I needed to give my son a haircut, give the kids a bath, and put them to bed
- As I mentioned the eggs and yogurt were NOT at room temperature and the butter was frozen
- I didn't chop up the apple a head of time
- I didn't preheat the oven and my oven takes a long time to warm up

SO - here is a picture of what the cake should have looked liked, look how pretty, golden brown top covered with apples that are all caramelized with butter and sugar and are actually part of the cake, embedded in it...


and this is what mine actually looked like


Not golden brown, no caramelized apples and sugar, just a big weird pile of cake with apples on top. Sunday morning I got up early and made brownies to bring to church because I couldn't bear the thought of people looking at this mess.

But guess what, we ended up eating it Sunday night with friends and it tasted wonderful.