It's the Thought That Counts

Whenever there is a birthday in our office, we go out to lunch and come back for dessert. Usually Clare or I volunteer to make something yummy. Tomorrow we are celebrating Michael's birthday and I decided I would make his cake because I thought of a great idea! {after making the cake... not sure how good of an idea it really was.}

Michael's favorite band is Muse and he has a background on his computer which was my inspiration for his Birthday Cake -

My crazy "great idea" was to attempt to make his cake resemble this CD cover. Well, apparently today wasn't one of my best baking days. Here is what happened during Cake Baking, Round 1:

Gathered all of my ingredients

Mixed up the batter and put it in the oven. Note: during that process, I came to the conclusion that me and the "folding" technique don't quite get along. I'm sure you would have loved pictures of what happened... let's just say the chocolate cake batter became makeup on my face!

....and something went horribly wrong! I think this flat thing weighed like 12 pounds. Perhaps there is a huge different between the flour I have and "self rising" flour?? That's the only thing I can think of... argh. But thank goodness I have a cupboard full of box cake mixes! Round 2! :)

Much better!!

I traced the CD cover and cut out the shadows. I pondered for quite some time how I should go about making the shadow shapes on the cake. After today's baking experience, I am forcing myself to learn how to use fondant!! Pretty sure that would have been the best way to do this. I'm not too pleased with my black sugar plan...

But hey... it's the thought that counts, right?! :)