I have never had a worthy contribution for a disaster thread, but
that changed last night. I had made yet another iteration of the
nectarine-raspberry upside-down cake that I have been tinkering
with, and this one was supposed to be perfect. Furthermore, it
might very well be the last such thing of the season if the little
farm stand is out of nectarines (or peaches) and raspberries.

I had decided to make this in a 9-inch pan this time, because the
cake part just seemed too high in the last iteration. I had
previously started using square pans. God knows why. Anyhow, I
arranged the fruit ever so neatly, topped it with the revamped
batter (the cake started life being much too wet), and baked it to
perfection.

Now, I should pause to say that the 9-inch square pan didn't fit
well into the receiving vessel. They were rim-to-rim, which
seemed pretty perilous. But then I had managed to do this once
before, so I thought I would succeed this time too.

Wrong. In front of my daughter, who was witnessing everything and
who offered to flip it, I took the plunge. Crash! The cake
splatted down onto my hallowed granite counter, and the pan
cracked, with shards going everywhere. My daughter will always
remember this, and she whipped out her camera to be extra sure.

I did salvage the tiniest bit of the cake, and, yes, it was going
to be a good one.
--
Jean B.