Cake Fail: My First Scratch Cake

Last July I made my first cake from scratch since I took up cake decorating. As you may recall from a previous post, I'm unapologetic about the fact that my cakes all start with a box mix. But my husband had come across a cake contest at a local cookbook store and encouraged me to enter. So I was going to make a scratch cake, using an untested (by me) recipe, and, of all things, have it be judged by a roomful of experts.

Easier on the eyes than it was on the palate.

To make things even more interesting, we were one week into a two-week cleanse and sugar was off limits. I was going to bake my cake, but wait until it was time to serve it at the contest, to taste it.

It was a series of ballsy moves that ended up doing a number on my ego.

First attempt at using transfer sheets. First ruffle rose. This was a day of firsts.

I picked one of the chocolate butter cake recipes from "The Cake Bible" by Rose Levy Beranbaum. It was in the section titled "Simply Delicious Foolproof Cakes." I even went out and bought a scale to weigh the ingredients, just like Rose advises. Surely "The Bible" wouldn't let me down? 

My cake, at the contest, sitting pretty on her pedestal platter. I love alliteration.

My two-tiered creation elicited a lot of "oohs" and "aahs" as we walked into Omnivore Books. It was the most intricately-decorated cake in the room. Too bad we weren't being judged on our decorating skills. (Note how I didn't claim to have the "prettiest" cake; there were a lot of natural beauties on display.)

I made the rounds, did some major cheating on my cleanse, and cast my vote.
I didn't vote for my own cake because 1) I'm ethical, and 2) it was the worst tasting cake in the room. 

The worst.

You probably already gathered that from the title of this post.

I was seriously humbled.

Even the OB topper (for "Omnivore Books") didn't buy favor with the taste-testers, made up mostly of the other contestants.

My cake tasted almost a tad spicy. Any guesses? It had a very fine crumb, which I thought was a good thing, but was overall very dry in the mouth. 

The aftermath. See how fine the crumb is?

And here's the kicker: A few people actually came up to me and said that they noticed something different about the middle layer of my cake, and that they liked it best. What I failed to mention to you, dear reader, is that...

(wait for it...)

I HAD SNUCK A LAYER OF BOX-MIX CAKE INTO THE MIDDLE!
I had a spare 8-inch chocolate layer in the freezer and had decided to use it to make my cake taller.

Busted.

It just goes to show how many people, baking experts included, prefer box-mix cake and don't even know it (you can read my post about that here.)

Has anyone out there tried making one of the chocolate butter cake recipes from The Cake Bible? Or any other of Rose Levy Beranbaum's cake recipes? I'd love your insight.