Cowboy Tricks: Cakes
Oh man, are cakes ever easy to screw up! To be completely honest there are very few chefs that can competently cook and work with patisserie. Normally you find a chef who is good at one or the other, the reason for this is that regular cooking is more of an art or an expression of ones taste buds. Patisserie, baking and cakes while still very much artistic is also very much a science. Recipes, ratios and formulas must be adhered too, failure to understand an ingredient's properties or technical requirements can result in failure.
Luckily there are still cowboy tricks of the trade that can pull your fat out of the fire!

Method: Fixing a burnt cake
More than likely when you have succeeded in burning a cake it is only the exterior that has carbonised and blackened. It is these dark coloured parts of the cake that not only look suspect but also hold all the nasty burnt aromas that will spoil it's taste
To remove these tell-tale marks of a burnt cake apply the serrated blade of a bread knife to the cake's surface. Use the knife blade to scrape away the carbonised and burnt parts of the surface. More than likely you will find that the blackening only extends a few millimetres into the cake so with a minute or two of scraping you should succeed in cleaning the cake up.
Use a tea towel or oven cloth in a fanning motion to blow any loose crumbs away.
To hide the evidence of the freshly scraped surface simply give the cake a generous layer of icing

Method: To fix a thin or 'collapsed' cake
Even an experienced chef will from time-to-time manage to collapse a cake due to a moments inattention.
To fix either knock up a large batch of cake filling (i.e. strawberry preserve and chocolate ganache, mashed banana and clotted cream etc) or a large batch of icing.
Slice the cake in half horizontally
Spread a thick layer of icing or filling across one half of the cake. Sandwich the other half back on top
If this addition hasn't solved the problem and the cake is still too thin take the next step:
Slice the cake in half vertically
Spread a thick layer of icing or filling across one half of the cake. Sandwich the other half back on top
You will now have two halves of a cake that have been layered one atop the other. The final result is half a cake with four layers. This is a drastic cowboy measure but at least this way you are sure to end up with a sufficiently raised cake that will look suitably high enough upon any service plate

Method: Instant cake
This cake can be made in the microwave. It won't win you any awards but it'll get you a cake done and dusted, from start to finish in less than 10 minutes.
Be aware that as this cake has been cooked in the microwave the cake itself will not have been exposed to high heats so the essential browning reactions that release alot of flavours will not occur. To get around this ensure the raw cake mix is full of flavour and that you have an icing mix ready to hide the cake's pale and bland-looking surface
Ingredients:
255g / 9oz self raising flour
340g / 12oz sugar
340g / 12oz butter
6 eggs
3-4 Tblsp flavouring of your choice
Method:
Melt the butter in the microwave
Mix all the ingredients together
Place into a ceramic (nonmetallic) baking dish
Microwave on low to medium heat for 5-10 minutes (depending on wattage / power of microwave)
Test to see if the cake is cooked by inserting a skewer. If the skewer once removed is still wet or moist return to the microwave for further cooking
Throw the cake into the freezer to quickly cool before icing

Method: Instant icing
Use a chocolate spread such as nutella. Expensive, but when you're in the proverbial brown stuff you gotta do what you gotta do...

Method: No non-stick baking parchment
I'm always running out of this when I need it the most and catering suppliers are famously slack in delivering this product on time
So to line a baking tray or cake tin:
Use tin foil, place shiny side down, matt side up
Grease the tin foil with melted butter
Sprinkle over the melted butter a fine layer of sugar and flour
Bake as normal

Method: To spice up a bland or pre-purchased cake
Punch a series of holes into the cake with a wooden skewer.
Make a flavoured sugar syrup:
Mix sugar, water and flavouring (lemon juice, vanilla, almond syrup, coffee etc) and boil until reduced to a thick syrup
Pour a liberal amount of this flavouring over the cake
Leave to stand for 5-10 minutes
Apply a layer of icing
Serve

Saving an unrisen cake
Collapsed and unrisen cakes happen even to the most experienced of pastry chefs, you might have been distracted during weighing, another chef might have removed your cake early from the oven, or someone might have jostled the cake tin while it was in the oven....

However if you need to fix the cake: slice in half (horizontally), liberally spread a suitable filling over one half, then sandwich the other half back on top. The extra filling should give you the extra height that you need

Still too slim? Try this drastic measure!
Slice the whole cake in half but this time vertically. Again, spread one half with a suitable filling, sandwich the other half on top. You'll end up with half a cake that has four layers.