When a Cake Just Isn't a Cake

You know that old saying "you can have your cake and eat it too"? Well, not when I am baking. My Mom and I are addicted to the Cake Wrecks blog and like to laugh at the crazy cakes posted. So the other day when my Mom informed me she was graduating from rehab*, I knew I had to bake her a cake - a wrecktastic cake. Only I did not know how very wrecktastic it was going to be.

My plan was to bake a plain sheet cake and then write something witty on it like "Happy Grad from Rehab MOM". Aren't I clever? Since it had been a while since I baked a cake, I went the bake from box route. B-A-D idea. Did I see bad idea? Because it was. Very bad. In fact, it looked like this:

Look carefully at that picture and tell me what you see. Does it look like cake batter about to be baked? Nope. Does it look like instead I opted to just frost the cake pan with frosting? Yep. That is what I thought too. I assure you that is not what I did. What I did was follow the instructions on the box that went like this:

-Take 2/3 cup water, cake mix, 3 eggs and a stick of butter. (Check)
-Put them all in a bowl and mix the ingredients until just moistened (Check)
-Take your mixer and on medium speed mix the ingredients for 4 minutes (Check)

Guess what? If you mix your ingredients for four minutes you get frosting. Surprise! Happy Graduation Mom - you have a pan full of butter cream frosting. Tasty but not really anything you can bite your teeth into. Next direction:

-Pour BATTER into the pan and bake

HA! Um, I didn't have batter, I had FROSTING! As you can see, I tried to "pour" it into the pan anyway. When I had to get the knife out to spread it, I decided I was acting plum crazy. There is no way I was about to bake FROSTING. So I rinsed the "cake" out of the pan but not before taking the picture.

I then told B how I made a cake of frosting and he responded "how is it possible for you to mess up a cake from a box?" Well, I don't know. But I did. And I messed it up magnificently. Beautifully, if I may. I should have stuck to baking from scratch. B agreed and demanded more "big pancake cookies." But, alas, I used all of my butter on my FROSTING CAKE. Ugh. 

*No, my Mom does not use drugs. She was in breathing rehab (kind of like physical therapy). Yes, we like to celebrate the little things in life. After all, they add up to the big things. Love you Mom - next week you will get big pancake cookies. I promise. I bought more butter!