Having My Cake (And a Piece of Humble Pie, Too!!)

I will start this by saying that this blog will serve as an example of how I do "the best that I can" but it ain't always pretty. I have never been what you would consider the domesticated type. I consider a frozen pizza a homecooked meal because I have to put it in the oven. Well, the last couple of years I have felt inspired to think outside of the pizza box and I've decided that I should attempt some cake decorating. My friend Kim (you can check out her blog at http://crazyjesushalleluiah.blogspot.com/) makes some totally cool birthday cakes for her kids and I decided that I should give it a try! Well, for Eli's 2nd birthday I made a "Dump Truck" cake. It was chocolate with chocolate icing I made out of pudding and cool whip. I sprinkled crushed oreos on it to look like dirt and put some construction trucks on top of it. I was SO proud! I took a picture of it to work and the first person I showed it to laughed out loud! She said "That looks like something I would make!" She did not mean that in a nice way either. It quickly humbled me and I realized that my cake decorating did not inspire the same awe that Kim's did. Needless to say, I have not attempted to show off my skills for anymore birthdays.


Well, a few weeks ago at my mom's I was looking through some of her magazines and I came across this cake. Isn't it beautiful? Looking at it I realized that it was almond slices and chocolate chips and that crazy Martha Stewart wannabe voice came back and said "You can do that!" (I guess that voices in my head should be the first clue that this wouldn't go well.)


I didn't even dare try to make the cake from scratch. This attempt would be for decorating purposes only. So, I bought a box cake and decided it couldn't be too hard. I made sure to spray the pans. Do you know that scene from Christmas Vacation when they go sledding and use Clark's new, special lubricant stuff? Yea, I sprayed those pans GOOD. There would be no sticking. In fact, I may call this my PAMcake. Despite my excessive use of PAM, my cake did stick. This is how it looked.

As my friend Karen says, frosting covers a multitude of sins (that is so how I feel about my make-up!) and let me tell you, I was wondering if there was enough frosting in the state of Mississippi to fix this PAMcake that was turning into a crumb cake! This is the final result and I thought it looked a lot better until I posted that pic from the magazine!

It may not have been the best looking cake, but it seemed to be a big hit with the kids and the neighborhood dogs! That's Sarah, Eli, and our friend Elam having a cake picnic on the trampoline. They are surrounded by our neighborhood dogs who seem eager for a piece. Of course, they also eat our garbage, but I won't think about that!!!!!!!!!