Devil's Food and Butter Cake with Choco Frosting

I had decided to bake two birthday cakes for my Uncle Alois, a chocolate cake with rich milk chocolate frosting and a butter cake with yummy boiled icing. However, I messed up the boiled icing (darn MTV for distracting me) and as the clock ticked towards his family's scheduled arrival, I had gone from cool baking goddess to frantic baking freak. Yes, just like that... I had morphed into a complete wacko running all around the kitchen searching the pantry and the cabinets for alternatives.

And here's one more, you think my problem is just the icing?
Ding ding ding!!! Wrong, the Butter Cake came out the oven looking just perfect and then when I came back after cooling it on the rack, it had gone from being three inches thick to just one and one-half inches. It was reduced to half my expected width. And as the cake shrunk, so did my spirits.

I hurriedly baked a devil's food, abandoning the chocolate cake plan. The matter called for drastic measures and a devil's food cake (contrary to its name) is heaven sent in any desperate dessert situation.

And an hour later, out came my deep-brown-almost-black cake. I went on to frost it and as I realized that I had a malnourished butter cake sitting on the rack, I decided to pull all the stops and did the unthinkable (well, not really), I layered the two cakes. (Uh huh, I really did.)

So I placed the butter cake on top of the Devil's Food and I ended up with a super thick birthday cake. I had to make some more frosting, but that was a breeze. I can make frostings with my eyes closed. Hehe.

Having ran out of time to make some colored icing for the lettering I used some marshmallows to spell out the greetings. Then I sprinkled a combination of chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, cashew, pecan) and some colored sprinkles. And voila, by the time 4:00 PM came, I was at the door, smiling like I had the sanest afternoon ever. If they only knew...



(Unfortunately, due to the inefficiency of an idiot (uhrmm.... also know as Me) I was unable to take a photo of the cake after it was sliced, so I have no picture to show how the inside of the cake looked. But trust me when I say it looked really pretty and tasted wonderful. )

RECIPES WILL FOLLOW, I just have to finish reading the Revised Penal Code for my class tonight. Till then.)