Slider

A little something to brighten your day...

Friday, February 11, 2011


Now isn't that sweet?  I totally think so!! 

And a little bonus for you go-getters out there. Do you ever feel like you try and try and try and things just don't work out as planned. Or you really put forth some huge effort and BAM you're immediately humbled back to reality? Well, such was the case for me last night. This is what is known as the Epic Birthday Cake Fail. I had high hopes for that upside down pineapple cake. It went from a mass craving to, this will be the birthday cake for Mari's party, along with cupcakes.

Looks healthy enough, right? I mean, not healthy, but definitely mouth watering, right? At least I thought so! In the oven they went for 45 minutes and out they came:
Here is where things took a spin for the worse. You might be able to see it already in this photo, but I probably needed to let the cakes cool a lot longer. Let's say....OVERNIGHT in the FRIDGE OR FREEZER! But no, it was nearing midnight and I wanted to be done with it. The recipe said 45 minutes and I'd already spent over an hour and a half with prep and baking. But look closely. There in the middle of the cake you can see that it is starting fall. And to the center right of the cake...yep, right there, it's starting to crumble.

Here is where a person who has had more sleep, a more logical person, would put the cake in the freezer or fridge and be patient. Not me, I wanted that instant gratification. I made some amazing icing and dangit, I wanted it to be nice and beautiful and delicious. So I began to frost my cake...while it was still plenty warm. Do you see where I'm going with this? Yes, my cake started to melt the frosting. Yes, the white frosting was becoming engulfed with caramel color, pineapple bits, and melted Maraschino cherry. THEN, a chunk fell in my hand. I couldn't take it any longer. I tried to use the frosting like glue and put it back together, but it just wasn't working. It was stuck to my hand. I'm pregnant, and this pineapple goodness was a bonafide craving. Little Tesla was willing that tropical ambrosia to my belly. So I shoved the damn thing in my mouth and sweet baby Jesus it was heaven! Had I not started to cry a little bit at my failed attempt at making a two layer cake, I TOTALLY would have devoured the entire cake. And the mini cake too!

Instead, I did my best to keep all of the frosting tidy on the top and shoved it in the fridge and pretended that it was what I'd done all along. 15 minutes later, I opened the door to peek in. It's like I somehow thought I had a magical refrigerator and something that Martha herself would appear in place of the disaster that I'd tossed in. But no, I don't have a magical fridge. It is real and mean and honest and blatantly laughs at my mistakes. Because not only was there a mess when I put it in, but it managed to get worse. (please don't put this on cake wrecks)
My cakes are lopsided, the center is nearly half an inch caved in, making this appear more like a bundt cake, and yes, that's a giant piece that has fallen off and given up in culinary surrender. *sigh* Be jealous of my baking adventures! So what if my cakes aren't store perfect pretty. It is pretty darn delicious and so far I'm batting a thousand because the uglier I make something, the tastier it seems to be.

There you go. High five yourself as I happily take my failure bow. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I will still try to salvage the smaller cake and use it as a smash cake and the larger one will be reserved for a more intimate gathering of family who could care less what things look like because in this case, they see the beauty with their bellies.

I'm just glad I was pretty good at "baking" Mari. She turned out to be sweet and beautiful! Wish you all a very happy pre-Valentine's Day!
p.s. I made the Valentine layout using a free action from MCP Actions.

1 comment:

The Art of Family said...

They both are very sweet indeed! Love the card, and the cake does look delish, lopsided and all - lol! xo! Happy Valentines!!

CopyRight © | Theme Designed By Hello Manhattan