Saving a Baking Disaster

I'm sure we've all had this happen occasionally when trying out a new recipe or making one of your own. Sometimes the taste is good but it doesn't rise, or, as happened this time, they had a perfect moist texture but lacked flavour. With these fruit muffins...well, I'm not sure I would exactly call it a disaster but they were certainly too bland to eat on their own and only the masses of fruit I put in gave them any flavour at all. There was no way I was throwing these out though (waste not, want not), so I put them in the freezer and thought of things I could use them for.

I finally decided that these could make a quite good base for some kind of cake, and when Mother's Day rolled around I decided on Brown Sugar Cheesecake. The base was made by just cutting the muffins in half and squishing them down into 4 ramekins, then I poured the batter in and baked at 350F/180C for 40-45 minutes. I made these several days in advance and put them in the freezer, then moved them to the fridge the day before so they'd be ready to go.

Brown Sugar Cheesecake (serves 4):
1 package cream cheese
1/3 cup tightly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
75g sour cream
1 tsp vanilla

I served these with the fruit topping I use on my Quickest Cake Ever, just pushed through a sieve. It was drizzled this on the plate (artistically, of course) and the cake base soaked up the syrup for extra flavour.

I also tried making mini ice cream cakes with the muffins for the base, vanilla ice cream, and the same fruit topping - delicious! In the past I've used up unrisen cake (tasty but much too dense) in a trifle as well. Just remember: cakes freeze extremely well, and if all else fails a bowlful of cake pieces and custard (or cream) and fruit can't go too far wrong.