Cake Hell - Day 2

So this is the first step. Mixing the batter...here's my "Not A Kitchen-Aid, But It Still Works Fine" doing my mixing work for me. Five bucks at a garage sale...can't beat that!

These are the two 6 inch layers baking- I will be doing four more layers today, the 8 inch and the 10 inch.

And, NO, I don't know why one is smooth and pretty and the other is brown and crinkly. But that doesn't matter, because I'm going to slice that top part off anyway, otherwise known as "leveling".

And one more matter - YES, I realize that my oven is in desperate need of cleaning. Um, I do have the "self-cleaning" feature on my oven. And I even use it now and then, but always forget to sweep the burned up stuff out of the bottom. That "self-cleaning" thing is very deceptive. It is only "partial-cleaning", as far as I'm concerned.

Here's the two cakes, baked, leveled, and torted (sliced in half). The two cakes in the back are torted at an angle, to give the top layer that "Mad Hatter" tilted look. I'll put these in the freezer and they will eventually become the top tier of the cake. I'll do the 8 and 10 inch layers exactly the same way.

When I level the tops of the cakes, those leftover scraps go in one of two places - the trash, or someone's mouth. Here is my daughter, acting as Quality Control. I mean, you do have to make sure the cake is GOOD and all! (She deemed it perfectly moist, delicate, and delicious - or "Mmmmm!!" in toddler-ese.)

What feels like the 28th load of dishes so far. Okay, I'm exaggerating a BIT. But those pans are not cheap, so I don't put them in the dishwasher. Plus, when I'm baking many cakes in a short time span, there's no time to run the dishwasher between bakings. I am developing a SERIOUS case of dishpan hands.

Okay. So I'm going to skip along, here. At this point, all three tiers of the cake are baked, leveled, and frozen.

I have also dressed and undressed my children two times, made breakfast and lunch, taken three phone calls from friends, washed (and dried, and folded!) four loads of laundry, cleaned gum out of my dryer (I know, I know...I STILL haven't learned my lesson about checking pockets), cleaned up a gigantic toothpaste mess in the kids' bathroom, taken Garrett to school, and watched Young and the Restless.

Now it's time to decorate the Sheet Cake to Serve Fifty, which will be picked up tomorrow.

Homemade Almond Buttercream icing. It is heaven in a bowl, my friends. Heaven in a bowl.

Here's the finished cake for tomorrow. I believe it will serve more like one hundred. You could definitely say my portion control issues extend into my cake baking as well as my personal eating habits.

On tomorrow's agenda: Coloring fondant, and making leaves, flowers, and a bee to decorate the Mad Hatter cake. And maybe a nervous breakdown, just to add a little excitement!