Baking disaster

In my quest for a winning recipe at the Ghirardelli contest, I tried some new cupcakes. I made the batter for German Chocolate Cake, but with Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate instead of the German Sweet Chocolate.

True story: German Chocolate Cake has no relationship to Germany. The chocolate used in German Chocolate Cake is sold under the brand name German Sweet Chocolate. My German friend looked at me like I was crazy when I asked him for an authentic recipe for the cake with coconut. He informed me that they did not have coconuts in Germany.

Anyway, my idea was to make cupcakes with the German Chocolate batter and put a large marshmallow in the center of each one. I tried that. I filled each cupcake liner 2/3 full of batter and stuck the marshmallow in the middle. Like an idiot, I made two pans of cupcakes (24). I put them in the oven and went outside to move the sprinklers. When I came back inside about 10 minutes later, I smelled something burning. The marshmallows had risen out of the cupcakes and were quite toasted on the top. And running over the pan. And dripping onto the racks and the bottom of the oven.

I turned the oven off and washed the racks. And cleaned the oven. (I guess that's one positive outcome...)

The German Chocolate Cake recipe makes a three-layer cake, so I had a lot of batter left over. For my next attempt, I cut the marshmallows in half and put the in the cupcake cups before the batter. This time, I made just one pan of 12 (instead of two). I also stayed in the house. And I opened a beer.

Every few minutes, I checked on the cupcakes. And every few minutes, I was poking down the rising marshmallows. I felt like Woody Allen in Sleeper. After about 15 minutes and 4-5 sessions of poking down the rising cupcakes, I removed them from the oven. They promptly fell to look like craters.

If the combination of the batter and the melted marshmallows didn't taste so damn good, I would have given up. But it really was the perfect combo.

After three pans (36 cupcakes), I still had batter. I finally put the remaining batter in a bundt pan and baked it until almost done. I covered that with the remaining marshmallows and the partially cooked cupcakes from the failed batches. I baked until I thought it might be done.

All of it is now in a large bowl covered with plastic wrap. I need to dream up a way to salvage what's there. Maybe a trifle?

What a mess.

I generally don't fail with baking. I guess I was due for a disaster. Now I just need to figure out how to turn this into a winning recipe.

Good luck with that...