Apricot-astrophic Squares

Today was the most surprising baking day I've had in a long time. Why? Well everything went tits up of course! Perhaps I'd become cocky, over-confident or just a little too slap dash but somehow somewhere along the line something went terribly wrong. The challenge in question - Apricot and White Chocolate Squares - is hardly the most difficult I've ever encountered, it certainly isn't anywhere near as complicated as some of the things I'll have to be attempting in the not too distant future. Yet, the attempt landed quite severely on its face. 

Essentially all these creations are is a simple cake made with white chocolate, butter, flour and sugar all mixed together to then be cut into small bite sized morsels. I think that my main problem was deciding to halve the recipe - using four eggs just didn't seem justified for one day's worth of baking! - and therefore limiting myself to having to use a smaller (and incorrect) tin. 

Up until the cooking stage everything was going well... I say "well" in the loosest of terms because the first task I had to do was melt chocolate and butter in a pyrex bowl over a pan of simmering water. I chose my smallest pyrex bowl and my smallest pan and assumed that the bowl would be bigger... The bowl fell into this pan of simmering water, sloshing it EVERYWHERE, clearly I had misjudged my calculations in water displacement, not so much Eureka as oops-leaker, but it can't be too big of a deal right?

Then I noticed a puddle of water sitting inside my bowl of butter and chocolate! Noooooo! Well no matter, I poured what I could of the water out and carried on mixing. The mixture melted perfectly and I assumed that everything was back on track.

I had settled on using a bread tin as my desired cooking container - perhaps my downfall - mainly because it had a square bottom at about half the size the recipe asked for; perfect for my reduced quantities. Though clearly it didn't work out...

The Result:

Mmmm Salvaged...

The picture is not doing this catastrophe any justice at all I can assure you, though you may be able to see the slightly blackened edges of some of the squares... This is because of the attempts to rescue what was clearly a doomed attempt at baking. The main issue (which is really not obvious once the end result has been cut into servings) was that the cake had sunk in the middle during cooking, as if some tiny, fat, dastardly borrowers had decided to tan themselves on the middle of my slowly cooking cake. Despite being left in for the desired time at the desired heat something just didn't go right for some reason. The end result had a small cylinder of soft, gooey, yet tasty mixture in the middle of the cake. 

Unfortunately, it wasn't how it was meant to be so I tried desperately to rescue it. I cooled it down (as the recipe suggested it might have a soft centre until cooled) in the fridge to no avail. I reheated it gentyl in the cooling oven to no avail. I even put it in the oven at full temperature for an extra 15 minutes; lengthy considering the actual cooking time was only 25-30 minutes in the first place! yet still I was left with a sticky consistency. Finally I cut the middle out and was left with a fair amount fewer, slightly burnt on the edge, but at least solid squares. Though at least it's the dog who is going to be gaining the weight after him gaining on gooey goodies!