A Mountain of a Cake

I live in a state full of beautiful sandy beaches (I also live in a state of denial, but that's a whole different blog post)...the ocean is a gorgeous shade of emerald, and the sand is pure white. Sounds like paradise, right? Well, I'm sure it is, if you're a beach person (I refer to them as 'basic beaches'). I, however, am a mountain person. I have a body made for flannel and awkwardly long feet that only appear normal in size in boots. I love to watch the sun cascade over the mountains in the morning for a few moments of what feels like magical, limitless possibilities. The air is crisp, the outdoor adventures are awesome, and being in the mountains is the only place I can truly consider myself optimistic (see, without all that humidity, I have *great* hair days, and that makes any woman happier than usual). After our August trip to Portland, trekking through the Columbia River Gorge and generally enjoying an active, significantly cooler paradise, I was inspired to try something new. I know, me, true lover of routine. See, the mountains really do make me an adventurous little thrill seeker. I had been studying Instagram and YouTube videos of cakes decorated with palette knives and painted buttercream for ages. I knew it was finally time to go for it and create a buttercream painted cake as an homage to my preferred outdoor scenery. I mean, most of the planet's surface is covered in water. Beaches-schmeaches. Gimme those mountains!

I was bear-y excited how this turned out. Sorry. I made an edible chocolate bear, so this pun was going to happen eventually.

 

I mean, you can tell they're mountains, so I feel like for my first attempt, not too bad. I'm certainly no Bob Ross. I wasn't painting happy little trees...more like demented little shrubs, but still. The cake itself was also another foray into adventure, and what a delicious treat that ended up being. It's a caramel cake with caramel buttercream because fall is close, but not "pumpkin everything" close. It's the right amount of sweet caramel notes paired with buttery yellow cake, and it leaves a nice lingering taste that makes me think of Michigan cider mills and delicious caramel apple cider. Then I remember it's still 95 degrees outside and the dream shatters, but in that moment, I am in pure Autumnal bliss. And for only 324 calories a slice for 12 slices, no guilt to be found anywhere!

And super easy to throw together.

 As always, doctoring a box cake mix and turning it into something bakery-counter worthy is not difficult. For this scrumptious caramel cake, you need:

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 3 egg whites
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup of skim milk
• 3 TBS caramel sauce (could also use dulce de leche, trying this next time)
• 1 tsp caramel extract

I made a maple cake not long ago that required, obviously, maple syrup; however, this much stickiness made the cake very delicate. It was a 9x13 sheet cake, so I didn't need it to be strong enough to hold up several layers. But this cake needed to be able to withstand the weight of multiple layers, so instead of using a 1/2 a cup of caramel sauce, I swapped in caramel extract to taste to get the right amount of caramel flavor while keeping the cake dense enough for stacking.

She's a tall one, alright.

Preheat your oven to 350, add all ingredients to your stand mixer, and blend on medium-high for 2 minutes. Turn batter into three 6-inch rounds that have been well greased with cooking spray. Bake for 28 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let these rest in the pans on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before turning out on to the racks to cool completely. Level your cakes and freeze for a few hours. I wrapped mine in plastic wrap, placed in a Ziplock, and froze overnight.

Ah butter, basic element of all things delicious.

The frosting is incredibly simple to throw together as well. Once your cakes are frozen, you'll need the following for frosting:

• 1 cup of butter at room temp
• 2 cups of powdered sugar
• 2 cups of Swerve confectioners
• 1.5 TBS of caramel extract
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 TBS skim milk (could totally go for Baileys Salted Caramel here if you do NOT need a pure white frosting, but I did, so..sadly Baileys free)

Blend the butter until fluffy and silky looking, then add in 2 cups of powdered sugar, the extract, and the vanilla. Blend, scrape the bowl, and add in the Swerve and milk. Mix well until everything is incorporated. I ended up with 26 ounces of frosting, but painting with buttercream surprisingly doesn't use much frosting, so I had a little over 8 ounces leftover (totes putting the leftovers on top of a waffle at some point this week).

Smoooooth.

I place my cake layers face down, use a piping bag full of frosting with a #12 round tip, slather a few circles on top of a layer, smooth, add another layer, and repeat until all my cake rounds are assembled and the top of the cake is frosted. I refill my bag and pipe around the cake to create a nice thick layer that I then smooth out with a small angled spatula first, then come in with a bench scraper for about 7-8 passes, removing excess frosting with each pass, cleaning my bench scraper, and going again until I have a completely smooth surface. It sounds like way more work than it is, and you don't even have to freeze for 15 minutes and come back in and smooth out with the paper towel trick because the thick layer of frosting you pipe on first helps cover up any weird or uneveness, and the scraper takes care of the rest. Now, freeze this for at least an hour. Painting on the buttercream will tear the frosting layer up if it isn't frozen. I froze for 3 hours (the cake. Not me. I melted in Florida heat while waiting).

And I made a tiny bear friend.

While the cake is freezing, you can make your bear topper by tracing out an outline of a bear on Parchment paper, flipping it over, and melting a few chocolate melts in your preferred color by following package instructions. Place your melts into a piping bag fitted with a small round tip and let cool for 5 minutes.

I used a #3 tip to trace my outline.

And then a #5 tip to flood/fill in the rest.

I used a toothpick to blend everything together. I set him aside to firm up for a half hour on the counter. Then I got even artsy-ier.

Behold, my palette knives!

I ordered a set of palette knives off Amazon. Was not remotely sure what I was looking for, but I went for it, and these worked out decently. I only used #1 and #3, and honestly, I needed one that was even smaller than #1 in some places. I knew I wanted light blue mountains, blue mountains, dark navy mountains, green trees, and rock candy accents, but not surprisingly, I have amassed all these things thanks to this never-ending sweet tooth and desire to bake.

My painter's palette was tasty.

I dropped a few dollops of frosting onto a large plate and mixed my colors with the palette knife. One drop sky blue in one, several drops blue in another, and several drops navy in a third. I also kept some plain white for snow, and later on I added green to that to create trees. I practiced maneuvering the knives on some Parchment for a bit before going for broke on the cake. They're pretty easy to handle, but since the cake was frozen, I had to work quickly to paint because the buttercream I was using to paint chilled and firmed up very quickly on the cold cake.

I started with the light blue and made my tallest mountains first.

 You just need to apply a smattering of buttercream to the back of the palette knife and softly paint it on the side of the cake. I used the larger knife for these mountains. I went with mountains for my first attempt because they're large, not uniformly shaped, and easier than flowers for sure. Once I had randomly smattered my first range of mountains, I froze the cake for 30 minutes.

Then I came back in with my blue buttercream.

 I used the smallest knife for my next range, and once finished with that, I cleaned my knife and came back in to paint snow caps on my tallest mountains with the white buttercream. I froze this for another 30 minutes.

I finished my mountain-scape with navy blue.

 The thing I liked best about this (aside from the fact that I was seated comfortably the whole time and not on my feet like most cake decorating techniques) was that there was huge room for error. If I saw a spot where I had a gap or something needed to be filled in, everything was frozen so I could come back in with the right color and paint in any holes. It was also neat to just let my mind wander and see where a mountain would end up. I froze the cake for another 30 minutes after my last range.

Teeny-tiny trees.

For my trees, I used a small paintbrush and quick little strokes to just dot the bottom of the cake with trees in random places.

Makes me miss the Pacific NW!

I finished off by placing random rock candy around the bottom of the cake and gently securing my bear to the top of the cake.

Getting photos was time consuming because each angle had a new look.

But I beared with it.

And it was worth it to try something new.

I really enjoyed learning and executing this technique, and I will definitely be trying to paint new cakes in the future. It really has a great learning curve, and as long as it looks cool, you've done it right in my book. For now, I'm enjoying this delicious mountain of a cake in all its caramel, fall-adjacent glory. Football is back on TV, the sun isn't bothering me until 9 p.m., and Publix bakery has pumpkin donuts out now. It's happening people! Fall is upon us...which means October isn't far off, so I'll be back soon with spooky Halloween bakes that are to die for...'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

Gotta love a good adventure.

Take me back to the mountains!

Pina Colada Paradise

It's July, and it's so hot and humid outside here, walking feels more like wading through syrup. By about 11 a.m., it's too gross to even use the pool (think warm bathwater), and that makes me sweaty and upsetty. I know when people think 'Florida!,' it's usually palm trees, beaches, and umbrella drinks. The actuality is it's gridlocked traffic, oppressive humidity, and a laundry list of things actively trying to kill you (see: hurricanes, sink holes, alligators, and other Floridians). I needed to find a way to cope with the temps, fast. Since my body handles heat with the same level of fortitude as a Popsicle sitting in the sun, I knew this was a job for cupcakes. Specifically, Piña Colada cupcakes full of rum, coconut, and pineapple.

They're so adorable, I *almost* forget how miserable it is outside.

Why not just drink a Piña Colada, you ask? If I have more than one frozen cocktail in a 24-hour span, I will get a brain-freeze + hangover combo for the ages (your 30s are a magical time to be alive). However, I do like Piña Coladas, and I'd be thrilled about getting caught in the rain if it meant heat relief, so I crafted up these little cuties meant to look like bite-sized pineapples (what, you can't fit an entire cupcake in your mouth at once?). I somehow managed to cram them FULL of rum and still have them amount to a mere 210 calories per cupcake for 24 cupcakes. I'll have you know a frozen Piña Colada runs anywhere from 475-650 calories, so by comparison, I can eat like two or three of these with no guilt or hangover. Adulting win!
 

They also only take two hours to make, start to completely finished and in my stomach.

Since I took 72 hours to make my last cake and it was no one's birthday this week, I wanted an extremely easy dessert I could whip up in a moment while I awaited Hurricane Barry's potential arrival. He may have missed us, but I did not miss the mark with these cupcakes. To make, you'll need:

•  1 white cake mix
• 3 egg whites
• 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup of canned pineapple juice
• 3/4 cup of Malibu coconut rum
• 1 tsp coconut extract
• 8 ounces of crushed pineapple, drained (you can use the juice for the ingredient above as well) 
• Optional: coconut flakes...I skip this since coconut flakes give me a "let's eat floss" texture to food

 Preheat your oven to 350 and line two muffin trays with cupcake liners. Mix together cake mix, whites, applesauce, pineapple juice, rum, and extract for 2 minutes on medium high. Fold in the crushed pineapple by hand.

Drink more rum as needed.

I used a cookie scoop and placed two scoops of batter into each cupcake liner. I baked these for 20 minutes, until they had a nice white but slightly golden top. Place your trays on top of cooling racks and let cool for 10 minutes, until you can handle the pan by touch.

This is so, so very close to the same color as my pale, fragile body.

 Remove from the pans and let finish cooling on the racks while you make your frosting and chocolate pineapple toppers.

Not gonna lie, I'm running super low on rum now.

This coconut cream cheese frosting is absolutely to DIE for...and not a heatstroke related death due to the fiery inferno happening outside, but a total bliss, so happy you died from deliciousness related death. To make, you need:

• 8 ounces of 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup of butter, softened
• 2 cups of Swerve confectioners
• 2 cups of powdered sugar
• 1 TBS coconut extract
• 1-2 TBS of Malibu coconut rum
• Yellow gel dye
• Feel free to top these with pineapple chunks, cherries, coconut flakes, whatever Piña Colada drink garnishes you like. I, however, wanted to turn these bad boys into tiny little pineapples...more on how to do that in a moment.

Mix together the cream cheese and butter for 1-2 minutes until well combined. Then add 2 cups of Swerve and the coconut extract, blending well. Add in the 2 cups of powdered sugar, 1 TBS of rum, and yellow gel dye. Blend well. If you want a stiff piping consistency, DO NOT add more rum. Full disclosure, I made these back in May and added 3 total TBS of rum to my frosting, and it was way too runny to pipe with, so I just smattered them in frosting and ate them anyway. I knew I wanted to share this recipe because it was way too good not to, and I was most definitely ready to eat them again based on taste memory alone, so, here we are.

I promise they get cuter.

Fill a piping bag fitted with a large open circle tip (I used a Wilton #12). Place the rest of the frosting into the fridge to stay firm...cream cheese frosting is delicious, but much like me, it does not stand up to any amount of warmth. Pipe a large mound of frosting onto the center of each completely cooled cupcake.

Now we're getting there.

Once you've done this for all 24 cupcakes, load the rest of your frosting into another piping bag fitted with an open star tip (I used a Wilton #32). Starting at the bottom of the large mound of frosting, pipe little pokey stars by applying pressure to the bag and pulling straight up and away quickly. Go all the way around the bottom of the mound, then work your way up one level at a time. I had about 3-4 levels of stars on each cupcake. If you're finding that your frosting is getting too runny due to the heat from your hand, put the bag into the fridge for 30 minutes to firm back up.

A field of blonde hedgehogs...

Put your hedgehogs/pineapples into the fridge so the frosting stays firm, and now get to work on those pineapple tops. No one wants a topless cupcake. I used 1/3 of a bag of green chocolate melts, melted according to package directions and placed into a piping bag with a #5 round tip. I let this sit for a minute so I wouldn't burn my hand off piping hot chocolate.

Pictured: the hellfire flames of Florida summer. Or pineapple tops.

I free-handed about 30 little pineapple tops onto a sheet of wax paper with a Sharpie while my chocolate cooled. I'm no artist when it comes to drawing, so use a template if you're feeling antsy. I flipped over my wax paper so it was Sharpie-side down.

I just didn't want them to accidentally look like pot..

I piped about 4 toppers at a time, tracing the outside lines and flooding the inside. I came back in with an angled spatula and spread the chocolate out evenly. I used the tip of the spatula to drag chocolate out and create the pointy ends of the leaves.

Plenty leftover to eat...

I ended up with way more leaf toppers than I needed, but, they were yummy after a "hard" hour and a half of baking...Let your leaf toppers set up for 30 minutes before gently peeling off the wax paper and placing into the top of each cupcake.

Full cuteness: achieved.

 These are as delicious as they are summery (in a good way, not a sweaty one). The rum and the pineapple mixing with the coconut is sheer perfection. The coconut cream cheese, well, it's life changing. DEFINITELY keep these in the fridge to ensure your frosting stays nice and firm. We all know it's hot, but we don't need a runny, dripping cupcake on the counter to remind us just *how* hot it is this summer. I've made these twice, and both times I have enjoyed the flavor tribute to summer. They take me away to a Piña Colada paradise, where the temp is a balmy 72, the pool never feels like warm bathwater, and humidity is absolutely nonexistent (my hair always looks so good in Piña Colada paradise). I'm glad I still have several evenings worth of this paradise awaiting in the fridge, because I might actually burst into flame if I didn't, so, in your face, Florida. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

Can't you just hear the Jimmy Buffet music?

The Manliest of Cakes

Every year, I try to make my husband a birthday cake that is cooler, better, and crazier than the last. Months ago, I saw a really awesome lumberjack cake on Pinterest, and I thought to myself, "It's so incredibly Canadian. It's absolutely perfect." Derek just happened to look over at my screen (or I shoved my Kindle in his face, who's to say at this point, it was months ago), and he thought it rocked. So back in February, I committed to memory that this was *the cake* for his June birthday. When it comes to cakes, my memory is a steel trap, but I honestly couldn't tell you the name of someone I met 35 seconds ago, so my priorities are exactly where they should be. Anyway, my husband and I love Canada (our happy place), and I ADORE plaid (75% of my wardrobe are plaid shirts that sadly get no use in Florida), so much so that I even buy Derek plaid button-up shirts because 1. They make him look like a Canadian lumberjack, and 2. I find that to be incredibly attractive. I also figured a cake that looked like a tree stump and was extremely plaid on the inside was also possibly the manliest of cakes to ever exist, and I am happy to report, this is a concrete fact:

Behold, a cake fit for a rugged outdoorsman!

My husband loves being outside, hiking, camping, soaking up nature, and he ended up with a wife who, while she enjoys hiking and being outside, enjoys indoor plumbing and air conditioning way more. At least she knows how to bake? ...I tell myself that this and my own ability to also look incredibly attractive in plaid button-ups make up for these other shortcomings. At least I can *appear* like someone who is outdoorsy. This nature-themed cake is made up of 4 six-inch round red velvet cakes with chocolate Baileys buttercream frosting. How I had never thought to make chocolate Baileys buttercream before is absolutely beyond me because dear sweet Mother Nature, this is hands down the best frosting mashup I have ever had the pleasure of eating. The words "life-altering" were thrown around (in my own head), but the birthday boy absolutely enjoyed this cake, and he's not even a huge chocolate lover. But the flavor of the frosting combined with the red velvet cake was the perfect amount of decadence. Add to the fact that each little plaid square inside is the perfect fork-sized bite, and you've got a recipe for a birthday cake even people who hate nature would love. At 339 calories a slice (12 slices total), it is worth every second of walking, hiking, and forcing yourself to be outside in the summer heat to work off.

Although it will take like three solid days to make.

I made the actual cakes a week ahead of time and froze them, and it took me most of Saturday to do so since you're making 8 cake rounds essentially. The baking and cake assembly definitely take the longest--frosting and turning everything into a tree actually takes less time, so, your move, nature. To make, you need:

• 1 white cake mix
• 10 ounces diet creme soda
• 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 3 egg whites

• 1 red velvet cake mix
• 10 ounces diet creme soda
• 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 3 egg whites

• Red gel dye, black gel dye

Start by making the white cake mix by combining all ingredients and blending well. Add in several drops of red gel dye until the cakes are bright red. Pour 8 ounces of cake batter into one greased 6-inch round cake pan. Pour another 8 ounces of cake batter into another greased 6-inch cake round. You'll have half of this cake mix leftover..set aside because you will need it later. Clean out your mixing bowl and make your red velvet cake. I added a drop or two of red and a drop or two of black gel dye to make these rounds maroon. Then I repeated, 8 ounces of batter into a prepared 6-inch round, and 8 more ounces of batter into a fourth prepared 6-inch round. I baked all four of these rounds at 350 for 24 minutes.

Colors for reference!

Soooo much black gel dye...

While these four bake, head back over to your leftover batter. Take 8 ounces of the red velvet cake and dye it BLACK AS MY SOUL. You probably will only have about 5 ounces of red velvet batter left by now, so you can either add 3 ounces of the white cake mix we dyed red to get 8 ounces of cake or just use 8 ounces of the white cake mix, but in either case, you will also want to dye these black as night, could be none blacker level of darkness. Set aside and check on the cakes in the oven. Once those four are done, let rest in the pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before you turn the cakes out on the cooling rack to finish cooling completely. My red velvet cakes dyed maroon--the ones that make up MOST of the cake, decided to come out of the pan super wonky. I'm not even sure how it was possible with how religiously I used Pam, so I assume this only happened because they were the two layers I needed the most, and that is how my life works.

But I digress.

I then re-prepared 4 six-inch cake pans, pouring 8 ounces of black cake into one pan, 8 ounces of black cake into another pan, and split the remaining/leftover cake batter between two pans because I desperately needed something to feelings eat after my red velvet cakes betrayed me. Bake these for another 24 minutes and follow the steps above for cooling.

This is not the bullseye on my head, life, so keep on walking!

I did some Google searching--if you make 8-inch rounds, Wilton's round cookie cutters are perfectly sized to cut the cake into the layers you need. If you use 6-inch rounds, they do not. So instead, you have to Google checkerboard cake templates until you find one with 3 circle layers and print it out to fit a 6-inch round cake. Good times. Once all of your cakes have cooled, be sure to level them all so things will fit together nicely and freeze for at least two hours (I wrapped mine in plastic wrap and froze them overnight so they would hold up when I cut them into circles). I had to chop mine down a bit since my red velvet maroon cakes left behind their bottoms in the cake pan. Now hold on to your bottoms, because here comes a photo montage!

Cut out each circle, and grab some toothpicks and a cutting board.

Take the largest circle, and place it on your cake, securing with toothpicks so it doesn't move. Again, I recommend doing this on frozen cakes so they don't fall apart.

With a sharp knife, cut along the edge of the circle template as a guide.

Then add the medium circle template on top, securing with toothpicks and using a sharp knife to cut out the center. You will not use the middle/center template circle. Repeat for all of your cakes (6 times total).

Very carefully and with the dexterity of a cat on Adderall, slide your hands under each cake and carefully remove the inner circle. Set aside on plastic wrap. Then try to remove the middle circle piece. I had some outer pieces that completely tore or broke during this process, but, don't worry, freezing and frosting WILL ensure this does not matter in the end. You should have a ton of circles like the photo above at this point.

Now, take a large outer maroon circle, place a medium black circle inside, and then place a maroon center inside of that. Repeat one more time. Then take a bright red outer circle, place a medium maroon circle inside, and place a bright red circle inside of that. Repeat once more until you have what's going on in that magical photo above. ALL of your maroon cakes will be used.

Oh look, even more leftover cake!

 So while you make 8 cake rounds total, you only end up using four once everything is cut up. You'll have black outer and center circles and red inner circles leftover. I wrapped all of my cake rounds in two layers of plastic wrap and placed each into a freezer bag. These were frozen for 5 days before I got to frosting. Freezing helped any pieces that had torn or broken apart kind of glom back together. Small miracles.

And by small miracles, I mean, thanks, Baileys!

Now is *finally* the easy part: making frosting and tree bark. For the bark, you simply need 4 ounces of dark chocolate and 4 ounces of semisweet chocolate.

Melt according to package directions, and spread out on a large square of Parchment paper with an angled spatula.

Place another sheet on top and smooth out the melted chocolate.

Roll up into a tube and secure with a rubber band. Place in the fridge to harden for 2 hours.

 While this settles, make your frosting. You need:

• 1 cup of butter at room temp
• 1 TBS vanilla
• 3 cups Swerve confectioner's sugar
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 6 TBS Baileys
• 2 TBS skim milk
• 3/4 cup of cocoa powder 
• Tan and black gel dyes

Whip the butter in the bowl of your stand mixer until fluffy, then add in the vanilla, two cups of Swerve, and 3 TBS of Baileys. Mix well, scrape the bowl, then add in the last cup of Swerve and one cup of powdered sugar. Add in the last 3 TBS of Baileys and mix well. Take out enough of your plain white Baileys frosting to top your cake with and set into a small bowl and dye a lighter tan shade. Now back at your mixing bowl with the rest of the frosting, add in the cocoa and 2 TBS of skim milk and blend well. Remove a small amount of this frosting into a bowl and dye it jet black. This is what will fill your inside layers, so you don't need a lot of frosting since the plaid "stripe" is thin. Lumberjacks, assemble!

Is what I assume lumberjacks say.

Take a maroon/black/maroon cake round, place on a cake plate, and spread a thin layer of black frosting on top:

So thin an Oreo Thin would be jealous.

 Now, top with a red/maroon/red round, spread another layer of thin black frosting, then top this with the other maroon/black/maroon cake round, giving one final layer of thin black frosting a swipe. You will top your cake with the last red/maroon/red cake.

Check that this is what you have going on or you won't be lumberjack plaid. You'll get drunken plaid instead. Or maybe tartan kilt.

Take the tan frosting, and spread a generous, thick layer of frosting on top of your cake.

Set aside a small piping bag fitted with a #3 round tip and a small amount of the plain chocolate frosting for later. Then slather a ton of chocolate frosting on the sides of your cake, smoothing out. To complete the tree look, I swiped my angled spatula up the sides of the chocolate frosting.

So anything that pokes out under your chocolate bark later looks nifty!

Then I took the world's largest serving fork and traced circles on top of my cake to give my tree stump rings.

Ah yes, making a ginormous mess.

Grab the piping bag you set aside and pipe chocolate into the divots left behind by the serving fork.

Take your angled spatula and then smooth this out repeatedly to achieve the final look of a tree's rings.

Gonna level with you, I ate about half of this.

Take your tube of chocolate and unroll. Things will break apart like they should. You can dust this with cocoa or powdered sugar to give some texture to your bark. Then simply place onto the sides of the cake so the round/curved sides are facing into the frosting. I used about 50% of my bark, so depending on your cake round size, you could be safe with 4 ounces of melted chocolate.

Either way, it looked awesome.

Pardon my thumb, I was really excited about how cool this looked.

Dead ringer for a dead tree! Place this into a cake safe and keep in the fridge so the chocolate doesn't get melty and the cake stays chilled and easier to slice until you're ready to devour it all like a good lumberjack should.

Birthday songs were sung.

Finally, the moment of truth came--blowing out candles and cutting into the cake. The whole time in my head I was thinking, "Please be plaid, please be plaid, please be plaid," and as it turns out, I was actually saying this out loud because I am nothing if not a crazy ball of anxiety.

Thank the lumberjack gods.

It's plaid! I figured if all else failed, we'd still have a really yummy cake, but I am so happy at how obnoxiously plaid this cake is inside. It's a crowning achievement in my love of Canadian-related food items (poutine is always first), but more importantly, my husband thought it was flippin' perfect. We're excitedly awaiting cake time this evening for round 2. Because although I feel like eating cake for breakfast is a perfectly reasonable thing to do on your birthday weekend, my husband is the grown adult in this situation, and since he's older, it's only appropriate. I guess I'll just go ensconce myself in plaid and wait by the fridge...this cake is definitely worth biding time for between that chocolate Baileys frosting oozing with silky deliciousness and red velvet cake that is a perfect flavor compliment to it. I could never cut it as a real lumberjack, but I can cut a lumberjack cake, so I've got that going for me. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

I really need to visit Canada again soon.