If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!

Tuesday was my hubby's Birthday.

I planned a meal that he would enjoy but, since he is not a big cake-eater, I did not know what kind of dessert to make. As I perused the baking isle at the grocery story, it occurred to me that he might like a German chocolate cake.

Not one from a box.

A homemade cake...

... from his grandmother's recipe.

Having made my decision, I set out for home, sure that I had everything that I would need already in my cupboards.

When the time came to make the cake, I could not find Grandma's recipe so I turned to my good old stand-by Better Homes and Gardens cookbook because it has recipes for everything. I discovered that German chocolate cake was actually named for the main ingredient - German chocolate (which I did NOT have in my cupboards). I figured out from the recipe that it was in the form of regular chocolate rather than powder, so I decided to substitute chocolate chips.

Just as I placed all of the ingredients into the mixing bowl, the power went out leaving me with a gooey paste and no way to finish preparing it! Seeing my half- finished project in the bowl, my husband questioned me about it. He noted that that recipe called for German chocolate, so I had to make him aware of my substitution. He was not sure if it would turn out.

The power was out for a couple of hours then I baked the cake while we ate a hastily prepared meal instead of the special birthday meal that I had planned, then I set out to make the special caramel/coconut frosting that goes with the cake.

It was awful!

I am not sure what went wrong - I followed the directions.

"HELP!" I said to my kitchen-competent husband.

It was lumpy and runny at the same time.

Yuck!

"This is too hard!" I said.

"I know. That's why I don't make it very often." He answered.

After looking for a few minutes, he was able to find his Grandma's recipe. He handed it to me, saying something about "the next time that you make it..."

"There won't be a next time." I retorted

"Why would you say that?" he asked incredulously."The other day James asked me how I learned to cook so well and I told him that when I make a mistake, I do it right the next time."

"You don't make cooking mistakes!" I mumbled under my breath.

I sent my children off to bed disappointed that there was not birthday cake for Daddy.

The more I thought about it, the more I knew that he was right. Galations 6:9 came to mind. It says, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest (or make a complicated cake!) if we do not give up." So the next day, armed with new resolve, I decided to try making the frosting again.

 I saw that there was one small difference in the recipe that might have made a big difference - no egg whites.

This time it turned out perfect.

Creamy.
Sticky.
Caramel-ly.

My daughter could not wait to show it to my husband when he got home from work.

I am so glad that I did not give up!

German Chocolate cake anyone?

P.S. Grandma had a hand-written notation that she substituted chocolate chips, too!