Jumblecakes to the Rescue

Triple-Nut Jumblecake

When it comes to most things in life, I think it’s safe to say that the difference between “failure” and “success” is largely a matter of perception.  This philosophy is certainly true in the kitchen!  It’s even more true when it comes to baking — you never know when breads won’t rise or muffins will turn out to be too grainy or cakes will have an odd shape.  Most of the time, everything still tastes great, but it doesn’t look the way it’s supposed to and/or it doesn’t have the expected texture for that particular category of baked goods.  (Too-crumbly muffins, for example, wouldn’t be too crumbly if they were meant to be scones…but then they wouldn’t be shaped like muffins.)

Enter the Jumblecake.  I made up this new category of baked goods last week when my triple-nut muffins didn’t quite work out the way I’d hoped they would.  (I had used all freshly-ground nut flours in place of wheat, and I think the added moisture of so many nuts backfired in terms of muffin structure.)  To put it bluntly, the muffins were a disaster: they came out of the oven completely concave.  They tasted fabulous, though, and were actually one of the best baked goods I’d ever concocted.

I tried to use the concave muffins as cups to hold more tasty items like fruit and/or ice cream, but they were so tender that they fell apart under the strain.  I resorted to enjoying them straight out of the muffin tin with a spoon, which was fine by me but not the classiest way to serve them.  That’s when I decided to spoon all of them into a large bowl and then serve spoonfuls of them as individual heaped Jumblecakes.  In that form, they could be garnished, adorned with fruit, nestled next to ice cream, whatever I wanted.

So, that’s the trick: if your baked good doesn’t have the shape or texture you expected, make it into a Jumblecake!  This works for any and all baked goods that are cake-/bread-like in nature.  (Doesn’t work for soft items like custards, cheesecakes, or pies.)  Your guests will be impressed by your one-of-a-kind, highly-customizable baked item and will probably ask for the recipe.

Whether you share the secret of your success is entirely up to you.

Tags: baked goods, dessert, jumblecake, kitchen concepts