Day Three Hundred Eighteen: Berry Ugly Layer Cake

On the cover of Martha's Baking Handbook, there is a photo of her holding a scrumptious-looking cake. It's all layers of berries and cream... I don't care where your tastes run, this cake looks amazing.  It's like a supermodel among cakes.

In fact, If Heidi Klum were a cake, she would probably be this one:

This is Martha's Old-Fashioned Berry Layer Cake (Baking Handbook, p. 154), which is very similar to Martha's Strawberry Layer Cake, only this one is berry diversified. (Look at me, making a pun!)

When I read the recipe, I realized how ridiculously easy it is:  Just bake two cakes and cut each into two layers.  Spread each layer with cream and berries and that's it!

Just as I was mixing up the cake batter, however, my electricity went out.   Apparently, the electric company decided to turn off the electricity of everyone in a four-block radius, in the middle of the day.  It was sitcom timing. It would have been funny had I not been holding a large bowl of now-worthless cake batter.  Since I was pretty sure cooking the cake on a gas stove would be a Bad Thing, I pursued Plan B:  buy an undecorated cake and finish the recipe from there.

Plan B would have been an excellent plan, if I could have found an undecorated cake.  The closest thing I could find was an angel food cake-- the sort of cake made in the bundt pan. A.K.A. that pan with the hole in the middle.

My first mistake was buying the angel food cake with the hole in the middle.  My second mistake was allowing my three-year old daughter to help me cut layers into said cake.  Martha's cake looked like a supermodel.  Mine looked like the Ugly Duckling:

To add insult to injury, the hole in the middle of the cake and all the fruit and layers made the cake very unstable.  Once I cut into it, the entire thing began to lean like the Tower of Pisa.

Despite the scary looks, it was quite a delicious dessert.  My husband loved it.  I guess anything can be good if it's smothered in enough cream and fresh berries.