Auction Cakes

Ok, I tried a new cake recipe, $25 later for special ingredients and this is what is what happened.
The cake batter rose a lot more than I expected, and thus right over into the oven. Yes, the smoke alarm works well. Then it took forever to bake, and burned on the top but still caved in bit. When I tried to remove it from the pan the side stuck and broke away. I tasted it and didn't like it at all, but my L did and said it was fine. Either way we aren't going to turn this into a fondant decorated cake. So I trimmed the cake, put the pieces in a bowl and will use them to make this:
I cut up the cake, layered it with mixed berries and whipped cream.

After a trip to Smart-N-Final, I decided to go a different route with the cake. Using my White Almond Sour Cream cake base, I tweaked a few things and now have a new version of a White Chocolate Raspberry cake baking in the oven. It's pink because I used Torani Raspberry Syrup in place of one cup of water. Instead of the sugar I used Giradelli's Sweet Ground White Chocolate. Ok, I am not an expert baker, but I took a gamble that these changes would work in this cake. I baked it in a 12 in by 4 in pan, (those are flower nails sticking up. Flower nails help the bake more evenly, great trick I learned from Cake Central.) Pretty Pink Batter:
It baked up beautifully, nice and even, I didn't even trim the tops! I did a 12in and use the rest of the batter in a 8" x 4".
The cake was donated for to auctioned at our annual Talent Show at church. The design was based on the artwork of Mary Englebriet, which I don't think too many people really knew about. I liked the way it turned out, especially the border. I think the cake would look as nice with just the white border! The cake is all done in marshmallow fondant.

The second cake I did was supposed to be used for people to taste, but there was so much cake already there, several people suggested I auction it also. I don't think people really got into the whole silent bidding idea, but we did make a nice amount to donate to the charity we were raising money for. This cake was iced in buttercream with fondant roses. Both cakes were white chocolate raspberry cake with raspberry mousse filling. I was pleased with the results, and I did get some great feedback when they served it on Sunday for our after church fellowship! Definitely going to use this recipe again!