Good cakes & bad cakes

Have been baking diligently, more like experimenting new recipes to find the best in each category.

Some really good results for carrot cake... yums (the pictures don't do justice here!!).

And some really BAD and disappointing results for King Arthur Flour's recipes.

KAF Yellow Cake

KAF Fudge Cake

It's especially disappointing when I used only the best butter and cocoa powder - Valrhona from France. The cakes just refused to rise and ended up rock hard :( Is it really caused by the flour?? But the recipe calls for all purpose flour, isn't that like normal flour (except for the branding)? WIll definitely try again with a branded flour, not going to give up. But may use cheaper margarine since it's experimental and there's no guarantee of success.

I must say that I was kind of disheartened with the failures... after so many years of baking I still fail. And this time I had no other choice but keep on trying because I promised to bake a cake for dad's 70th birthday.

So I tried another Valrhona Chocolate Bundt Cake recipe I got from the internet that promised a light and aromatic cake. But I was again disappointed. It hardly rose and definitely not light in texture. Since I was running out of time, I had no choice but to use it.
The fondant part was fun, made and painted some peaches and gold ingots - but I was really pressed for time - I could have done a better job! Anyway, I hope my family enjoyed the cake - if not the taste/texture, at least the 'beauty' of the fondant ;p

Makes me wonder again - do people really SHARE their recipes 100% especially on the internet??