Just Say No To Crack

Over the years, it has become an unfortunate tradition to have birthday cakes that have cracked, broken, are lopsided and generally unfit to look at, They are always more than edible, you just can't look at the cake as a whole.

This was the one that started it all:

It looks ok if you tilt your head a little.

Then there's this masterpiece.

This was made from a recipe from the Death by Chocolate cookbook. Not only were the layers different sizes, but the cake cracked clean in half. Then, in a desperate attempt to hold it together, I used about 10 lbs. of frosting. I was so frustrated and angry, that by the time I went to put the grated chocolate on, my temperature had risen, and all of the pretty chocolate melted in my hands as I was putting it on.

This beauty above was made for Bubba's birthday, a fudge truffle cheesecake. When I pulled it out of the oven, it looked perfect. When I came back to see how it was cooling, I found a nice pretty crack.

I'm not the only one that has problems baking cakes in this house. The Irishman, because he's such a good husband, tries to make my birthday cake every year. This is what happened last year.

He always tries to make my favorite, an angel food confetti cake with chocolate icing, just like Mom used to make for me. This year, he misread the box and picked up a regular cake with confetti. It didn't work so well in the angel food cake pan.

The only thing that I've been able to pull off with any kind of consistency is a chocolate butter pie. This is actually a quite common request for birthdays (wondering if that has anything to do with past failures?).