The Ace of Cakes --- NOT

After yet ANOTHER cake from a box mix gone seriously wrong, you would think I would do one of the following:

1 - QUIT making cakes, or at the very least;
2 - QUIT posting pictures of all my cakes gone wrong.

But no, I'm an optimist and I'm certain that one day one of them will turn out the way I want it too - and not fall apart -- and when it does, I'm posting a picture of it.

I think the problem with this particular cake - which just happens to be Andi's birthday cake (sorry, Andi) is that I had too much frosting in between the layers. When I put the top layer on it, it just split open and took off for all four corners (if indeed a round cake can have corners and in my case, I'm going with yes, it can.)

I tried to quickly salvage the cake with long shishkabob toothpicks but it just kept on sliding. Jacob, ever the food critic declared it "hideous." I'm not sure he will even get to taste this masterpiece-when we scoop it out of the container I scooped it into.

Now - where does the optimist part of the post come into play? Check this out....Even as I was surveying the disaster that was Andi's birthday request, I was getting ready to work on Bill's request - Baked Alaska. Every year I ask Bill what he wants for his birthday dessert and every year he says the same thing - he has no idea I actually did it this year.

Here it is - ready to go into the freezer for the final stage before a quick browning to turn all that glorious meringue (my first attempt at that ever) into a brown mountain.

Don't worry - I plan to do that in the oven and not at the table with a lighter. I may be an optimist, but I'm not stupid.

Later........TAH-DAH! Didn't burn the house down, didn't burn the cake and surprised Billski! I might even tackle another cake next week for Big Guy's birthday.