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How to Rescue a Cake When You Forget the Sugar
Soak it
It was beautiful. How could it not be? Sourdough chocolate cake.
The sourdough discard had given it a little extra rise, making it nice and fluffy. It was perfectly moist. I couldn’t wait to savor a nice, big — really big — slice.
I loaded up my fork, giddy with anticipation. Then…
Something was not right.
My mind raced. I hadn’t even swallowed. “What have I done?!”
It was the sugar. I forgot the sugar.
If you’re reading this, I suppose there is a high likelihood you are feeling the same way I felt that afternoon standing on the porch with eager children around the table begging me for a slice. If so, you’re not in the mood for a monologue, so I’ll make this brief.
All is not lost! I tried a few experiments, and one of them was a huge success.
Crumbling it up and sprinkling it over ice cream wasn’t bad, but wasn’t exactly satisfying when I really wanted a piece of chocolate cake.
The final answer? Cake soak.
It was perfect. Moist, gooey, and sweet — just like a chocolate cake should be.
Feel free to get fancy with the soak if you want to, but if you’re desperate to just fix your mistake as quickly as possible, here’s a simple recipe.
Ingredients
Use the smaller amounts if your cake is small, like a single layer 8-inch round cake; the larger amounts for larger cakes.
- 1–2 cups water
- ¾–1½ cups sugar or brown sugar (depending on how large your cake is and how much sugar was called for in your recipe)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Put all ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved.
- Place your cake in a dish that has a rim — I cut mine into the right shape and used a small casserole dish — and pour the soak over it. Cover and let stand for at least 45 minutes. You want the liquid to be soaked up like a sponge, not all at the bottom.
