What went wrong with this recipe?

scottishminnie

I made this plum tatin earlier today.


http://www.food.com/recipe/plum-cake-tatin-barefoot-contessa-ina-garten-221374?layout=desktop


I've just inverted it onto a plate and while it looks wonderful the plum topping has the most horrendous chemical taste you could imagine.


The only thing I did different was to use Stork margarine to grease the glass dish.


I've tasted a single plum and it's fine although not as sweet as I would have thought. The taste seems to be coming from the sugar glaze.


The plums were a few weeks old and ripe but not overripe if you know what I mean.


I'm a bit lost (and a bit annoyed) as it looks great.

RosyRed

Hi ,sorry your cake has gone wrong .It sounds to me like the sugar glaze has been cooked a little too much,if it caramelises it can soon catch and can go very bitter/strange which sounds like you describe.Hope that helps.

scottishminnie

That was the only thing which I wondered about. I don't have a sugar thermometer so it may have been on fractionally longer than needed although as soon it started to colour I took it off the heat.


Is there any rescuing it- I wondered if a dusting of icing sugar would do anything meaningful


Edit - there is no rescuing it. It's in the bin, I don't think even the birds would touch it as the top is so bitter. I guess I better either buy a thermometer or avoid this type of thing in future