There is a need to tell you my failures.  Why?  Heaven only knows.  Could it be akin to confession – which is said to be good for the soul?  Sometimes I have such high hopes for a recipe, and then there is disappointment.  This was the case of a recipe that was on the back of a Nordic Ware Bundt Cake Pan that sweet Jenny got for Christmas.  Coconut Mango Cake – it was made with toasted coconut, mango and rum.  What was not to like?  Yummy!  Sounded like my kind of recipe.

I toasted the coconut and it smelled divine.

The mango was diced and ready to be included into the cake.

Ingredients were gathered together.  A cake mix, milk,  eggs, butter, mango, rum, nutmeg, and the toasted coconut (not shown).  Oh my!  Ever-Loving was even anticipating this treat.  I thought it promising that the rum I had was coconut rum.  How perfect!

It was easy peasy to make.  Combine cake mix, milk, rum, butter, eggs and nutmeg.   That was it.

Then I stirred together the mango and the coconut with a little flour.  Look how gorgeous this looks and it did smell fantastic.   All I had to do was fold this mixture into the batter.  (Ever-Lovin’ was back in the kitchen hovering at this point.)

These smaller bundt pans are ideal to use when you want to share a cake.  Everything looked wonderful, and I could not wait to take this cake to my friend.

The baked cake had the sweetest aroma, and looked delicious with the flecks of coconut.  Each cake had a little trouble coming out of the pan, but I blame myself for that.  I should have sprayed the pans with baking spray instead of just greasing the pans.

Since there were pieces of cake stuck to the pan (and Ever-Lovin’ was still hovering), we nibbled on the warm cake crumbles as it cooled.

NO TASTE! I kid you not!  The cake was bland.  Not bad, but certainly not what I had expected.  Even Ever-Lovin’ was disappointed.   We could not believe our taste buds.  What could have gone wrong?  I checked.  All the ingredients had been used.  Nothing was left out.  The recipe suggested sprinkling powdered sugar over the cooled cake.  Tried that.  It was not much help.  It is pretty bad when powdered sugar does not improve something.

At that point, I didn’t think the finished cake was worthy of a picture.

Wouldn’t you think Nordic Ware would put an over the top delicious recipe to go along with their beautiful bundt pan?  Maybe Nordic Ware likes bland.   I do think they make good quality bake ware. (Most still Made in America.)

The next morning we grilled cake slices in butter and sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar for breakfast.  It helped, but this still wasn’t the cake of my dreams.

I feel better.  Thank you for listening.

Blessings to you and yours,

I know some of you are curious about the recipe.  I do not recommend it, but…  Here it is.

 

I admit.  I would like to try this cake again.  Different coconut – Different rum – and Different cake mix.  I can not believe it was so blah!