Trials and Tribulations of Baking my first Cake!

Happy Belated Birthday Kate!! I know it may sound stupid, but I truly haven't baked a cake on my own. My mom baked cakes, and if you know my sister Kate she is a Pastry Chef and she bakes cakes every few days. So, when my mom asked about Kate's birthday cake, I offered to make it. I took a bookmarked recipe from Kate's computer, thinking that it was her chocolate cake recipe with coffee in it. It's amazing!

I closed a lot last week, but I knew I had to buy ingredients and I would stay up to bake. Poor John had to sleep through the mixer, banging pans, and me cleaning up until 5AM!! John and I made a late night run to Wal-Mart to get all of the ingredients. Butter, chocolate chips, milk, creamer, sugar and the list seemed endless...

There are a few things I would like to point out if you are baking a cake that I found out!

1. ALWAYS FLOUR YOUR PAN!!!! I used the Pam cooking grease for the pan and EVERY SINGLE CAKE STUCK!!! I had cake crumbs all over the table and kitchen! Thank goodness two cakes were decent enough to make a cake with.

2. Don't bake at 5am!! Your family members probably don't appreciate you making noise and I was so exhausted and gave up at 4. Bake earlier and sooner!

3. When in doubt... make homemade... CHOCOLATE GANACHE ICING!! You will want to lick the bowl clean! Just ask Kate! When she is baking I try to stay away from it, but I always stick my finger in the icing.

4. Make sure you know how much batter you are making! Kate reread the recipe I made... and I made enough batter to make an ENTIRE wedding cake!!! Oops! Well I had extra for all the cakes that fell apart!!

All and all the cake turned out great and Even though it didn't look amazing! I tried my best. And I'll leave the baking to Kate next time!