skyeharmony: Boyfriend Cake

This was the second time I have made Justin a birthday cake. Check out last year's cake here... you can decide for yourself which one was less disastrous.

I used a recipe that I had eaten before, so I knew it was good, but I decided to make a cute little 3-tiered cake with 4-inch round pans. Thus, I only made a half batch of batter and frosting.

I can't find any pictures of the actual baking, which is a travesty. The batter was enough to fill the 3 mini cake pans pretty full, and also to make 3 cupcakes. I put the filled cake pans on a cookie tray and slid it in the oven next to the cupcake tin. After about 12 minutes, a burning smell wafted over from the kitchen.

I ran in, fearing the worst... those fears were validated. The cake pans were totally overflowing and the chocolaty goop had even escaped the cookie tray to congeal onto the bottom of the oven. I had grossly overestimated the amount of batter that was appropriate and probably could have made another 3 cupcakes with the extra batter. An emergency rescue operation commenced. I was able to scrape off the extra partially-baked goop from the tops of the cakes and transfer the pans to another cookie sheet to finish baking.

Remarkably, the cake was not burned at all; it was just horribly lumpy. Of course, I did not even think of abandoning my plan for a tiered cake. I also did not attempt to level the cakes. I'm that lazy. (Plus they were so small, after leveling, I figured there would be nothing left!)

Upon assembly and frostage, the cake resembled the Tower of Pisa mid-construction, dipped in chocolate. I began making up stories in my head about how much Justin loved Italy in order to validate this.

Then I added chocolate shavings and candles.

I was going to add one white candle in the middle- simple and classy. But I noticed that the candles came in packs of 24, and that's how old Justin was turning. How fortuitous! I'm sure the cake is stable enough for all these candles. See?