Success, on one front

In cooking, that is.

I made a sponge cake last week. I had never attempted any thing other than a basic cake before, and after reading the recipe, I realized that sponge cakes are not a cake walk (pun intended!). But it was a chance to use my kitchen aide mixer, so I attempted the making of the sponge cake.

I actually followed the recipe exactly. I will often tweek this, or change that, especially if I don't have an ingredient, or I'm short on something, or it sounds better this other way. But this time, I did nothing of the sort; no, I followed the recipe to a "t". As I took the cake out of the oven, it looked good, and crumbs I tasted were good (it was an orange sponge cake). Then I hit a snag. Things like sponge cakes and angel food cakes must be suspended upside down while they cool, but my cake had been made in a silicone pan, which is soft and squishy, and, thus, is difficult to suspend. The pan started to squish in on itself and that didn't seem good for the cooling cake. So, I plopped the cake upside down the cooling rack. Alas, I discovered the need for suspention. The cake is sort of... squashed. Not bad, but you could see how it sank down on itself while cooling, once I put it on the cake stand. I'm still pondering the issue of "suspending" the next cake made in the silicone pan, and if you have any ideas, please let me know.