How to Make a Cake...Or Not

During our trip to Oregon my cousin and I were talking about my love for cooking. She eagerly told me of a recipe book she had discovered. She had not tasted one bad recipe yet. We talked about her husband's particular, maybe slightly exotic tastes. We laughed at her brother who said he was happy with beans and sour cream -- that would never go over well with either of our husbands.
This past week I received a package from my cousin with the recipe book she had been raving about. It was full of healthy recipes, and nutrition tips, but at the end the authors had included one "triple-layer, triple-decadent, Died-and-gone-to-Heaven Chocolate Layer Cake" Of course I wanted to try it. (And it was my mom's birthday, so it was the perfect excuse.)

I tasted a crumb of the cake fresh and hot from the oven. It was awesome! It was so moist and chocolaty! Then i don't know if i left it out too long to cool, but it became drier and tasted like normal chocolate cake when i served it.
But the problems started long before serving time.
It was one of those days when I had a hard time getting motivated in the morning, so it was almost 2pm when I started getting lunch out. I still had to go shopping for the ingredients for the cake and my mom was coming between 5 and 5:30pm. I was running out of time. I decided to leave the boys in charge of lunch and went shopping. (Eric was in his office in the basement working.)
When I returned, I cautiously stepped into my kitchen. This was not the kitchen I left. Everyone did get some food, so I guess I should be happy about that. Caden was still in his high chair, still eating. They had given him a bowl and let him feed himself -- BBQ chicken and rice casserole. He had food and red sauce all over him, the tray, the chair and the floor. The dishes and food were still out on the stove and on the counter, but there was no time to clean -- we had to bake the cake!
I set my shopping bags full of ingredients down on the table and started giving instructions.
Zac started mixing the dry ingredients, which he managed to spill on the counter and down the front of my right pant leg. Micah started mixing the wet ingredients. We did get all the egg shells out. Shiloh started stirring the melting chocolate, which he spilled on the burner. Caden was still eating in the middle of the kitchen while we worked around him. Occasionally I spooned some more casserole into his bowl. I think he ate most of the afternoon. He was happy and we kept working.
Finally the cakes were in the oven. Time to begin the frosting. It had everything you might put in frosting that's delicious and bad for you in it -- butter, cream cheese, whipping cream, chocolate -- Yum.
Zac was mixing the butter and cream cheese when the bowl went spinning and crashing to the floor. Luckily most of the cheese mixture stuck to the bowl, which, of course, landed upside down. Caden decided to throw his bowl on the floor also. It broke into pieces. Food and ceramic splattered across the kitchen.
The boys began licking bowls while I whipped the frosting and then added it to the cream cheese mixture. As you can imagine they became covered with chocolate, but do they wash? Of course not. While I was busy mixing the frosting, they were busy climbing on our ledge between the kitchen and living room and jumping onto the couch. They grabbed the beam at the ceiling to steady themselves before they jumped and left little chocolate fingermarks up there too. More mess, no time to clean.
I finished the frosting, and put it into the fridge to chill. Caden was still eating, or maybe just playing with his food by this time.
Unfortuately my mom was coming VERY soon now, and I had to start assembling the cake or I wouldn't finish before she arrived. I took the frosting out of the fridge, but it wasn't stiff enough. Now this is sad. I added powdered sugar to make it stiffer so I could create the cake. It was still good, but not so amazing. The cake though, was beautiful! I used raspberries, slivered almonds, coconut and some ivy to garnish it. It looked great.
I thought about if someone showed up at our door right then. That thought was very humorous. You would think it would be embarrassing, but the kitchen was beyond embarrassment! It was so unbelievable, it was comical. The counters were covered with bowls, utensils, eggs shells, wrappers, chocolate, and cream cheese mess. Caden was still in his high chair, with food smeared and squished and splattered around him. The unused groceries still sat on the benches. Chocolate was on the ceiling, the wall, the floor where Zac spilled earlier. Then there was me -- my pants were dirty from Zac's accident earlier, but now my shirt was splattered too. It was so unbelievable you had to laugh.
I called my sister and asked her -- please STALL our mom!
Caden went to the bathtub and we tackled the kitchen. Eric came up to help too. I try to leave him undisturbed because even though he is home, he is working; but as desperation started to settle in, we called for help.
My mom was late and surprisingly we got the kitchen and myself cleaned.
Needless to say, I might have to try the cake again.