I MADE THE CAKE IN THE DEBBIE BROWN'S 50 EASY PARTY CAKES; THE ONE WITH THE SUGAR, FLOUR, BUTTER, AND EGGS ONLY. AFTERWARDS I STARTED READING ON CAKECENTRAL HOW EVERYONE HATED THIS CAKE! I MADE THIS CAKE BECASUE I WANTED TO USE IT FOR CARVING- BUT I ALSO WANT IT TO TASTE GOOD TOO! sO MY QUESTIONS ARE:

1. CAN I RECOVER THIS CAKE WITH A SYMPLE SYRUP?
2. IS SO, AT WHAT POINT DO I PUT IN ON? BEFORE OR AFTER CARVING/ASSEMBLING?
3. ANY SUGGESTIONS ON RECIPES OR AMOUNTS? OR OTHER WAYS TO SALVAGE THIS CAKES TEXTURE/TASTE?

THANK YOU!

Simple syrup is a 1/1 ratio of sugar and water boiled and diluted. A couple of things come to mind. You can add flavoring to the simple syrup such as a liquor --I add 1 tablespoon of rum to my mixture while it is still hot. The alcohol evaporates and leaves a wonderfully mellow flavor. You can add fruit to the mixture, such as raspberry preserves then strain to leave take as many seeds back out. Apricot preserves work well.

Brush the carved cake with the mixture --don't saturate as the cake will become sponge-like and collapse under the weight of the fondant.

Take into account that our taste/palates are different. Debbie Brown's recipe is a pretty straight forward British recipe. I, personally, did not find the cake horrible - just different from our American expectations. Go ahead and carve it, taste as you go, and see if adding the simply syrup will lend itself toward improvement in the overall product.

HTH!

The simple syrup will definitely help your cake. I just take a spoon and drizzle it all over the cake. You'll be able to see where you put it because the cake gets darker when it's wet.

I tort the cake and then immediately put the simple syrup on, then the frosting, then the next layer of cake.

I have not tried any of her cakes. Honestly they don't LOOK good in the pictures. It looks really dry. But who knows, maybe you'll like it. Might as well carve off a piece and see what you think