Cake Calamities.

Today is September 1st, which is my coworker and dear friend Ingrid's birthday. On my birthday, as you may remember, my awesome sister got me a cake carrier and a Southern Cakes cookbook. I told Ingrid that she should pick a cake for her birthday, and I would make it. She said she'd like a coconut cake, which was exciting because my new cookbook has a WHOLE SECTION on coconut cakes. I can't wait to make one for my Grandma!

Last night I made Ingrid's cake, in between trying to get our pit of an apartment cleaned (Tim was off doing laundry. Divide and conquer.) The making part went fine, especially when I narrowly averted putting in two cups of milk when the recipe only called for one. I split the batter into my three layer pans and put them in the oven and then cleaned the bathroom. When the timer dinged, I took the pans out oh so carefully... except for that last one, which ended up face down on the floor. Which had not yet been cleaned. I grabbed the spatula, hoping that if I could get it off the floor mostly intact, I could just carve off the top layer of cat fur and kitchen dirt, but of course the whole thing fell apart all over the floor and I had to toss it in the sink (I did sample some of the crumbs. Cat hair and dirt don't bother me none!) The other two layers were okay, and I figured it would be sufficient to feed the troops.

Then I got to the frosting. The recipe instructed me to boil a cup of sugar in half a cup of water for about fifteen minutes, stirring constantly, and then set it aside. So I have one pan with a sort of half caramelized sugar mixture. And then I was to whip the ever loving crap out of two egg yolks. I did that. THEN, they wanted me to pour the still warm sugar mixture into the eggs and mix briskly. I don't think I was brisk enough, because all of the sugar turned into rock candy in the egg mixture. I didn't think it would spread well, so I swore a bunch and dumped it in the trash. And then called Tim and asked him to stop by the store and get me a package of cream cheese.

I should have known better than to do anything other than cream cheese frosting. All other frosting is garbage.

The cake came together well in the end, and was easily carried in my awesome carrier. I know how to suck up to my coworkers. Now I can only hope that the baking and frosting process for the lemon poppyseed cake my dad has requested goes smoother. Or that, if I do drop a layer, I can just brush the cat hair off. I'm sure he won't mind... especially considering that Lulu licked his Father's Day cake before I could bring it home.