The Lawrence Family: Some Things are Better Left to the Professionals.....

So, I have to say that I've had some bright ideas in my life. I've also had some terrible ones! But, what fun would life be if we didn't attempt stuff that we have never done before? Yeah, I had that happen to me most recently....namely with my bright idea to make Zoe a cake for her birthday. Yes, I was trying to be frugal and decided that I could make my sweet Zoe a cake all by myself! You know, it started out with me going to Joann's and buying a cake mold and then buying all the trimmings. I should've known when I had spent way more money to make the cake than to buy one that I should've given up then. But noooooo, I have to attempt to make the cake because I'm no quitter! I decide on Sunday morning before church that I'm going to go ahead and bake the cake so all I have to do is come home and ice it. The cake mold called for a "2 layer cake." Have you ever seen a box that says "2 layer cake" on it? Yeah...me neither. So, in my brilliance I decide that I should buy two cake mixes to take care of that problem! Ha! I get everything together, get the cake in the oven and proceed to get ready for church. I hear Mark say (well....scream is more like it), "Courtney! What have you done?" I run into the kitchen and there is smoke EVERYWHERE! Yeah, the cake has spilled over the sides of the pan and it is dripping in the bottom of my oven. Let's not forget that there are also little tiny fires in the bottom of my oven from the drippings, too! Genius! Needless to say, Mark had to stay home from church and clean up my mess because there was smoke in everything. I get to church and ask my buddy Shelley to sniff my hair to see if it stinks. I think she was being kind when she told me she couldn't smell anything because I couldn't get the smell out of my nose! But that's what one of your closest buddies is for....right? (Thanks, Shelley!) Mark is nice enough to go buy me another cake mix (one this time) and go ahead and bake another cake before I get home with Zoe. I wait until the cake cools and try to "turn it over" when part of it sticks in the pan and begins to rip. Nice! Could this get any better? Uh...yeah it can. Mark comes down and starts piecing it together....with toothpicks.....while saying, "We'll just make sure Zoe doesn't eat from this end!" Bwahahahahaha! I get Zoe to bed for her nap and begin to ice her cake with buttercream frosting. Yeah, I follow the directions exactly and the icing is runny! I can't begin to tell you how excited I was by this point (insert intense sarcasm). Mark is nice enough to mix me another batch and it is thicker (we left out some of the milk to make it thicker) so I begin piping it onto the cake. I'm thinking, "This is going to be so cute....you know....if you don't think about the toothpicks already holding it together!" What else could go wrong you might ask? Well, the icing I've piped onto the cake is now starting to run. So, Mark says, "Let's put the white icing all over it and it'll look like a bear!" We get the icing on there and it doesn't look anything like a freakin' bear! If it's a bear, he looks like Beetle Juice with the shrunken head! Needless to say, I just gave up. Mark says, "You go to the store and buy my baby a cake!" I must admit that the cake defeated me....but I got that stupid cake in the end! Mark proceeded to bury his face in it and then I did the same. Hey...at least it tasted good, huh? I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed making that stupid cake (again...insert intense sarcasm here)!