Daddy's Home For His Birthday

Since we all miss Daddy so much we decided to fly him home this weekend. He got in late last night and will leave tomorrow evening. It has been a fun day and since Daddy's birthday is in 4 days I decided to make him a special dinner and cake. I had planned to make myself a cake on my birthday a few weeks ago, but was too sick, so I had all the ingredients on hand and I just had to get busy.

Listen, I don't claim to be a good baker. I love to learn how and have made A LOT of progress (which is just sadly still true even after you see today's cake). Attempt number one: Melted the chocolate, creamed the butter and sugar, added the yolks, added the cake flour, and 3 tablespoons of baking powder instead of 3 teaspoons - so it ended up in the trash. Attempt number two: Everything is going great. Mixing everything in my stand mixer, scooping the sides with a wooden spoon .. WACKA WACKA WACK THUD. The spoon gets caught between the blades and splinters. I am determined to continue so I check for wood chips, I didn't see any so I get a plastic spoon and continue. Cake done, in the pan and in the oven - pretty sure it looks runny, but I am certain I did everything correct.

Onto the butter cream frosting - homemade is my all time favorite. I dreamed about this, I was so excited. Scooping the sides with the plastic spoon.. WACKA WACKA WAMP WAMP. The spoon gets sucked into the blades and stops. Busts my stand mixer! I'm determined to finish. Get out yet another wooden spoon and turn it on, now manually turning the bust thing. CRACK CRACK CRACK. Yes! - I did it again, this time I can see the wood splinters on the blades of the mixer - oh well. Into the fridge it goes to firm up.

The timer went off and the cake looked miserable. It was collapsed on one side and was bubbly.. pretty sure it isn't supposed to be bubbling if it is done right? So I leave it in for 10 extra minutes and review the recipe. I left out a 1/2 cup of cake flour the second time around. Dang it!

The result: This pitiful excuse of a cake. We all ate it even though it was U-G-L-Y and terrible. LOL. Just thought I'd share. I hate when I have something planned so nicely in my head and it turns out like this. Guess I'm learning humility?