What Would Betty Do?!

Ah Cake. Everyone loves a good cake, don't they?! I know I do! We seem to celebrate cake in this society and find any excuse to bake one - or have someone else bake one. And by chocolate covered beaters, that's ok with me...

...as long as **I** don't have to make it! Don't get me wrong! I don't HATE making cakes! I love the smell of baking cake filling up the nooks and crannies of my little cottage as much as the next person! I just don't like it being something I have to do. Because I know me. And I know my baking skills. And I know what's going to happen.

OK, I'm exagerating a little bit. I didn't actually FROST the cake, so this picture isn't an accurate representation. It looks something more like this:

Yes. It completely fell apart when I took it out of the bundt pan. It was very...pathetic! I had such high hopes for this cake! Because this isn't just a cake for us. If it was, I would just say something like "dig in honey cuz I'm not making another one no matter how ugly it is!". And honey would be just fine with that because A. He loves me no matter what and B. He loves cake no matter what form it takes and C. Because after 12 years of marriage, he's well aware that I'm not related to Betty Freaking Crocker! But this cake is for honey to take to work tomorrow as a birthday cake for a co-worker. And that ups the pressure quotient tremendously! Pressure is bad enough! But CAKE PRESSURE?! Good Cupcakes, it's just too much! And yea, maybe they are not expecting a big, fancy cake from Honey. But they know Honey is married and that I don't work and am a housewife (THAT makes me laugh!) and that housewife honeys should know how to make a birthday cake! So in my head (and just maybe theirs) I am seeing the acceptable CAKE OFFERING as THIS:

And if not so regal, then at least THIS:

(Minus the wine, of course, since I will surely drink that bottle completely before honey leaves with the cake in the morning!)

But NO. My cake is a total disaster and no amount of Hershey's Fluffy Chocolate Frosting is going to cover up the crater in this bundt! So what am I doing? Well, at 11:00 PM on a Tuesday night, I am baking ANOTHER cake. And I am furiously praying to the CAKE GODS that this one will come out cleanly! Because I only had the two mixes on hand and the birthday party is tomorrow! And believe me, no bakery in town makes yellow cake with fluffy chocolate frosting in this town. I checked. And begged. A lot. And the only option was to make the darn thing myself. So as you are all dreaming of fairies sprinkling stardust on your heads, I'll be up to my eyeballs in cake reconstruction 101. And if you somehow are up reading this tonight...please say a little prayer that this cake comes out of the pan clean. Because my options are limited and Honey needs to keep his job to pay for our cool new house and all the art supplies I need! And somehow I just know that his job and the quality of the cake he brings in are somehow tied together! Sigh. I wish I was her:

I bet SHE never ruined a cake.

UPDATE: The cake is done, the world has continued spinning on its axis and I am over my little cake-induced panic attack! Heh Heh! I feel pretty stupid for stressing over a damn cake. But every 2-3 years or so I freak out because I'm not your "traditional housewife" kinda gal. I mean, come on people, I'd rather make art than cake! It's just the way it is. And Honey is very cool with that, too. In fact, during the cake-tastrophy, he kept saying it didn't matter and to just fill in the hole with frosting. But I had it in my mind that I needed to make A PERFECT CAKE a la Martha Stewart. But ya know what? I'm NOT Martha! And I never will be! And I'm ok with that - most of the time! heh heh!