That'll fix it

Emboldened by my happy results from the Two Layer Pineapple Upside Down Cake, I decided to use the box of butter cake mix I was squirreling away on Saturday. I figured I'd bake a two layer cake for the hubs, and use the opportunity to make my own chocolate frosting.

I prepared the cake per the directions, and put it in the oven. Thus ended the "classical music" portion of my dessert.

The chocolate icing was pure jazz. The recipe I found in Betty Crocker called for a half-cup chocolate powder, eight cups of powdered sugar, 3/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup milk and two tablespoons vanilla.

I could see right off the bat that there wasn't enough chocolate. And that I didn't have enough butter. So I dumped the stick of butter I did have into the Kitchen Aid mixer, and added a half-cup of chocolate ... and then some.

Ooops, I was supposed to cream the butter first. Better add some milk. But not the nonfat in the fridge ... I picked up the half-and-half we use for creamer. I added it until the mixture looked creamy, then dumped in a box of powdered sugar.

Too thick. More cream. And more. Oooh, the vanilla! More creamer. More sugar! More creamer.

And so on, until the mixer was about half full of a delicious first attempt at homemade chocolate frosting.

I used dental floss to even out the top half of each cake, then plopped the first half down and slapped a pile of icing on top.

Did you know that thick icing will actually tear a cake? Getting crumbs in the icing and putting holes in your beautiful dessert?

Did you further know if you slap on more icing, it will cover the ugly spots?

There was close to an inch of icing in some spots before I put the top layer on the cake. I frosted the top, and then the sides ... and then looked at the four cups of remaining icing in the pot. I did another taste-test, and thought, Why not?

By the time I finished, there was almost more frosting than cake.

But with chocolate jimmies and some artistic flourishes from my spatula (no professional frosting equipment here!), you couldn't tell without cutting into it.

The hubs asked for an enormous, Matilda-esque slice, and I obliged. He lost some color when he saw all the frosting, but dug in like a good soldier.

Then, days later, he politely suggested that next time, I add a little cake to my chocolate frosting.

Sure, babe. Just hand me that fork.