Sometimes upside down is right side up...

Or maybe, it's that from time to time the only way to move forward is to change directions.  This latest creation is a testament to science, birthdays, and the fact that things often don't turn out as planned. Sometimes they turn out even better...

I guess I am still shocked this cake turned out at all. The cake itself is rather simple, however as requested by my roommate who's birthday was on Friday, it needed to be gluten free.  As a general eating rule, I am not a fan of gluten free baked goods (unless it's a macaroon), and I assumed with good reason that I would also not be a fan of baking with gluten free products.  I get it I swear, but cake is cake, and it's hard to imagine it made out of garbanzo beans.

Therefore, to disguise the gluten-free nature of this birthday cake, I wanted something moist, dense, and covered with carmel sauce.  After playing with the idea of lavender for some time, another taste I usually dislike in baked goods as it is more often than not too soapy, I landed upon a gluten free version of the lemon yogurt cake I made a few weeks ago.

I consulted the blog gluten-free goddess  as she seems to be the expert on all things delicious and gluten free, however it is essentially the same recipe I used from Smitten Kitchen, but with gluten free baking powder and blanched almond meal. If like me you are also obsessed with with cakes in bundt pans, remember to double the recipe.

The real fun started after the cake came out of the oven.   When using a bundt pan I always flour the bottom before baking, however, since flour was out of the question I decided to forgo the flouring and see what happened.  Bad idea. After some amount of patience, loosening, tapping, and tricks there was no denying that the cake was stuck to the bottom. I managed to keep the sides in tack but after finally extracting it from the pan I was left with two cracked halves of cake.  Lesson for the day on patience: don't do the first thing that comes to mind when deciding how to save your cake. Do the second.

My first thought was to take the cake halves, crumble them and make a bread pudding of sorts with the Jalapeno Lavender Carmel Sauce. But, what kind of birthday cake would that be? So, after taking a few breaths and talking myself down from the ledge, I landed upon plan B, or I suppose plan C.

Step 1.  Flip your cake upside down and perforate the bottom with small holes. Step 2.  Heat in a double boiler one entire jar of Jalapeno Lavender Carmel Sauce. I used Hot Cakes, a local Seattle Company, or you can make your own.  Once the sauce is thinned out pour it over the cake and use a pastry brush to coat/ form a tasty edible glue to hold together your broken cake.  Step 3. Sprinkle cake with powdered sugar. Step 4.  Open your fridge and find some pretty looking fruit. Anything will do, but I used a mixture of plums and nectarines.  I think berries would be nice as well, but I like the half moon look of nectarine slices.  Step 5. Sing Happy Birthday.