Mmmm.... Cake.

For my daughter's birthday, I decided to be A Real Mom and make a cake. In all honesty, I decided to do it because A. I'm cheap and B. last year we got cupcakes from a bakery and I was totally pissed about the crapola decorating job they did that was SO NOT WHAT I ASKED FOR. So, this year, I would do it myself. Let me first say this: I am a good baker, as we have established in previous posts. But, I rarely make cake and I don't think I've ever decorated one before. So, naturally, I decided to take it on the day before my daughter's birthday party. Because that makes sense.

My daughter's party was on a Saturday. So, mid-morning Friday I decided to bake the cake so it would have ample time to cool before I decorated it. I pulled out the boxes of cake mix, prepped my pan, mixed everything up, poured it into the pan, and sent it happily into the oven. About 40 minutes later, I pulled out a lovely, huge and delicious-smelling cake. I let it cool for a little while, then attempted to remove it from the pan. I reached into my bag o' cooking-show-learned tricks and put a sheet pan on top of the cake before inverting it. Then I tried to lift off the pan. The cake was not moving. Hijinx ensued, and this is what happened to the cake:



Apparently, simply greasing the pan is not enough if you hope to actually take the cake out of the pan. You know, like for serving it. Mary called just then, and she was able to school me in cake making/decorating 101. She informed me that if one hopes to remove a cake from a pan, after greasing and flouring a pan one should line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. So, I ran back to the store for cake mixes #3 & 4, came home and started over. Mary knows her stuff- this time it worked like a charm!

After a few hours of cooling, it was time for me to attempt the cake decorating. My toddler couldn't decide between a flower cake and a Funshine Bear cake, so I made a flower cake and stuck a couple of Care Bear figurines on it the next day.


SO much better than what the bakery did last year!


This is art.


Highly edible, delicious art.


Let's just be honest: I rock at cake decorating.