My nemesis

In my valentine's day post I mentioned that I made Zac a chocolate sheet cake, his mom's recipe, that he loves.  This cake is my nemesis.  Everytime I try to make it, things go terribly wrong.  The last time I attempted was the night before Thanksgiving.  I had a million other things to do and didn't get home until 6:30.  I made dinner, cleaned the house, did the laundry, packed Zac and I both (because he always forgets something) and made the cake.  I didn't get to the cake until about 9:30.  I measured everything, mixed it all up, greased and floured my pan, poured it and got it in the oven pretty quickly.  I started washing dishes and about 5 minutes later, when I saw the sour cream tub on the counter, realized I didn't add any to the cake.  I shut off the oven, pulled out the pan, and scraped everything back into my freshly washed mixing bowl.  Then I washed the pan, re-greased and floured, and re-poured the batter, this time with all the ingredients.  When I went to check on the cake 30 minutes later, I realized I'd forgotten to turn the oven back on.  And this is my history with chocolate sheet cake from scratch.

I decided to give it another go on the 12th....then got busy making candles for Ethel Edith and decided instead just to premeasure all my ingredients and then I would be set for the next evening and wouldn't be up late trying to bake again.  So on the 13th, after work and a million other things, I set to work on Zac's cake.  First things first, melting the butter.  I set my bowl of flour and cocoa and sugar on the stove and turned to put the butter in the microwave and heard a whoosh sound.  This was the sound I heard

That's four cups on the carpet.  Carpet.  Awesome.  I flipped over the bowl and scooped in as much as I could.  This is what was left.

I made good decision number two then, I put my hands on my legs and started to stand up...

I was frustrated bad now.  I dumped everything in the trash and started over.  Remeasured, repoured, baked. and it all was going pretty well.  Next, the clean up.  I put away everything that was cold first, then started on dry ingredients.  This is when I made bad decision number three.  Like mom always said, don't pick things up by the lid.  When you do, this happens. 

And cocoa explodes all over your floor.  Notice, the vacuum still out in the corner of the picture.  I thank God that Zac and I got a Dyson.  Thank you God.

This was my little containter after all the cocoa and flour, and sugar.

Now you understand why this cake is my nemesis.  My foe. 

Fortunately, the cake was perfectly cooked, the icing I made melted without clumps for once, and it was DONE!  Zac was thrilled and now I get to make the decision every morning to be terribly unhealthy and eat cake for breakfast.  I never regret it.