Three fits, lets try four!

So, I like to make cakes. That is understatement. I LOVE to make cakes. I have not gotten very creative with the actual "cake". I use "beefed up" box mixes. I am not a follow the directions kinda gal, with anything in life.

So, I was asked to make a baby shower type cake for a celebrating one step closer to adoption for a friend of mine. This is the resulting finished product. ALL things on the cake are made from scratch. The cake is even made from scratch... gasp! Don't worry there is story!

So. The story.

This was the second attempt at making this cake. It was made in a half sheet cake pan that I have used only once before. Remember I said I only use "beefed up" box cake mixes when making my cakes. When I used this pan the very first time I used three cake mixes. Which made the cake 2/3 white and 1/3 chocolate. It fit in the pan with room to spare. I wanted to make the cake an even half and half cake. So,  four cake mixes it is!

Immediately upon getting all the batter in the pan I knew this was not going to go "as planned". OH well, we have gotten this far, what's a "little" extra batter gonna hurt? I thought I would just have a bit of a dome to cut off the cake to even it.

That's what I get for thinking.

Take note of the cake piles in the bottom of the oven, dubbed "horse turds" by the kids. Now look what the kids willing did with the "horse turds". YUMMY!

The cake in the pan is still edible. I froze it. I will decorate it next weekend for a "beach" themed party I am having to get the girls together for a house party!  It is sunk in and that will become the "swimming hole". If all goes well.

I remade this cake, from scratch, to get the finished product in the first picture. This time I used a double batch of butter cake recipe. Now recall I have never made a cake from scratch, so that is a risky investment for me. Also, realize that I have no clue how many cups of batter this cake recipe will make either. I was prepared to deal with the consequences, again.

I figured how much worse could it get.

Well, I do not have a cooling rack big enough to hold a cake this size. So all I can do is flip it out on the cake board and allow it too cool. When I went to flip it over to cut off the slight domed top, the whole top of the cake stuck to the cake board. I did not take a picture of that. It was sticky and goey from the retained heat. I could not just scrape it off and stick it back together.  I was able to save it, though. I took the cake bits I had to cut off around the edges and layed them in the hole in the middle of the cake. Wallah, flat even cake! Remember this was cake number two.

I did not have to make cake number three, thank God!