The Ice Cream Birthday Cake

You are looking at a "home-made" ice cream cake. When I asked Emily what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday, she said a chocolate ice cream cake.

Several years ago, Mark and Michelle gave the cake kit that is specifically designed to make this type of filled cake. So, I got out the instructions and began the cake adventure. When I say adventure, you have no idea what paths this cake took to get to where it ended up. When I got up on Thursday, I decided today would be the day I baked this cake. I made one right after I got the kit, it was for Shelbie, so I thought to myself, this was pretty easy, and should be able to knock it out in no time. I sat down book in hand, and read the portion about the ice cream filled one. This cake is baked with three pieces of

a cake pan. One is called the tall pan, one is called the insert, and the last is just a round cake pan. The tall pan has markings on it's side, you know the "fill" line, you mix up the batter, fill the tall pan with batter up to just below the fill line, place the insert pan on top (that's the one that makes the hole", lock it into position, fill the round pan half full, and wall-la, in the oven it goes. I went onto other things, but I started to smell burning cake. So I whipped on the light in the oven, and what do you think I found? Yep, the tall pan was spilling out cake batter all over the oven floor. What to do what to do? I turned "off" the 350 oven, took the cakes out. Waited for a few, took a spatula and cleaned out the spilled cake. This cake is chocolate, so it was a mess. I opened the tall cake pan, used a 1/2 cup measure, and took out about 1 to 2 cups of the batter. Replaced the top, put it back in the oven, and once again went on to other things. Long and the short of this story is this. That cake spilled it's contents 2 more times. Now you would have thought I would have learned something from the first mess, NO NOT ME, after the second time, I put the cake on a round pizza pan. It filled that pizza pan and burned it's contents. Once I cleaned it up the third time, I just knew that cake was going to be the joke of the party. Funny thing about that cake, it turned out okay. Tasted good, and the addition of the vanilla ice cream made it special for my sweet Emily. I have cleaned the oven, and it's all just a memory. It is still a mystery why it happened. Sher-girl and I have mulled it over and over, and I have decided that I either need to cook more, or quit cooking all together, 'cause that mess was the mess to end all messes.

P.S. Have you ever had burned chocolate cake crumbs all over "everything". Well I did, and I don't want it ever again!!