Baking Lessons

I have lofty aspirations of being a Martha Stewart / Becky Home-Ecky type.

More often than not I just end up being a Becky Home-Icky.

Case in point: The birthday cake.

Our birthday girl, Vivian, requested pink cake.

After blogging about it (Baby Cakes) and getting several great suggestions (thanks to ticomoose and mnbarb) I was inspired to make one myself. This year I was not going to buy a pre-made licensed character cake.

A labor of love.

Armed with a box cake mix and a killer buttercream recipe I was ready to make the best darn pink cake ever.

I pulled out all of the ingredients and provisions.

Cracked a few eggs, swirled a spatula and tried not to wake the kids with the mixer whirring.

Cake pans were put in the oven.

And buttercream frosting that was to die for was made.

It was creamy and decadently delicious with fluffy pink peaks.

But I also couldn't wait to get to sleep.

It was getting late.

I'll just assemble and frost in the morning right?

Wrong.

I refrigerated the frosting overnight and it turned into caulk.

I left it out to thaw a bit.

It turned into oily, watery , transparent, pink goo.

Okay I thought well maybe I'll just frost the cake and stick it back in the fridge and it will transform back into something that resembles frosting again.

So I frosted the bottom layer. Fine. Translucent, kind of crumby. But fine.

Then I placed the top layer on the bottom and it cracked in slow motion. . Deep, deep chocolate crevasses formed

This cake was unsalvageable.

Peter saw me staring dejectedly at the broken cake.

"Look at it. It's ruined! " I wailed. What I saw as a complete mess he saw differently. "Well first of all she's two. She doesn't really care what her cake looks like. And look, the cracks in the cake form a "V" for Vivian." Why does he have to go and make so much sense? I instantly felt better. Then he dug around in the pantry and found a tub of chocolate frosting. "Here fill in the cracks with this. Make it look intentional. You're golden."

He was right. Here's the final cake.

Not one bit gorgeous. But filled with love and frosting.

Lessons learned?

Don't put frosting in the refrigerator

Quit with the Martha aspirations already.

I stress out about things that my husband doesn't (and vice versa)

Ah, but there's the Tater Tot Casserole that more than made up for the whole cake drama.