For some reason, cakes just aren't my thing. It kills me because I love to bake, but I just can't seem to get them right. When Ben and I first started dating, he would ask me to bake him yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Out of a box. Sounds easy enough, right? It should be, but Betty Crocker would slap me if she knew what I've done to her batter over the years.
The first attempt was about seven years ago for Ben's birthday, and it came out beautifully. I had never made a cake by myself before, but I really wanted to impress my boyfriend of a whole month with my mad skillz so maybe he'd think I was wife material and keep me around a little longer. The joke was definitely on him. Turns out that was a fluke and by the time he realized he'd been pool-sharked, it was too late... and that, my dear friends, is how I tricked him.
A few months later he decided he'd like another one of those awesome cakes he thought I could make. The second one came out raw in the middle and black on the edges. If that wasn't amazing enough, the third one came out completely dry and stale-tasting. Every cake came out worse than the last, and by then Ben had been let down so many times he stopped asking and I stopped trying.
It took me a good five or six years to go down that road again, but Christmas of 2008 I decided to try cupcakes with all my newlywed bakeware. They were delicious and over the course of a day an a half, Ben ate at least 20 of the 24. I'm not kidding. Ever since that day I've been baking cupcakes for every special occasion and even bought a fun icing tool so I can make them extra pretty.
Flash forward to today. Ben has been gone for two weeks doing survival training in Maine in the throes of a blizzard, and tonight he's coming home. I'm really excited - it's been a tough week (see previous post). Feeling brave and totally confident in my abilities, I went to the store and bought all the things I'd need to make him his favorite - yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I was going to make the real deal this time, and in my head it would be glorious and Ben would surely bring flowers home the next time he went out. I guess I had envisioned something like this:
Ok maybe not that fabulous, but I have been watching a lot of Cake Boss, paying special attention to all the little details they put into the icing all the while fighting like the hilarious Italians they are and playing stupid pranks on one another (I love that show). How hard could it be?
I only have one cake pan because let's face it, cake and I have a history I'm not real proud of. I thought maybe I'd test the waters before committing to a second one. I went to the store and gathered my ingredients, even springing for some decorating icing to give it that little something extra. Pleased with myself, I mixed up the batter and baked the first half of it as directed on the box. When the timer went off, the cake looked perfect and I thought I totally had this one in the bag. As soon as I let it cool and started pulling it out of the pan, it crumbled into a million pieces and all was lost. No problem - my cake would just be one layer instead of two. I threw it away and tried again. This one held together a little better until I went to ice it. I'm not really sure what happened, but let's just say cake is not my calling. The end product looked like this:
It's a really good thing Ben thinks I'm funny.
LOL....that is awesome!!!
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