The cake

This cake was a family effort. True, some of the effort tested my creativity and even my patience, but we persisted and came out with 'The Cake.' Matt made the cake in the afternoon while I was out with the children. Smart man, to cook when there are no children around. I waited until the next morning to put it together. I put both layers on the table, right in the middle so the dogs couldn't get at it. Dogs? Bah! In the time it took me to make some chocolate frosting for the middle layer, Joshua got to the cake. I hear Matt say, hmn. Looks like Josh got to the cake. And he laughed! Hmph. We did not share the cake with him. I didn't scream, not yet, but Josh had taken handfuls from the side and a few chunks from the top. Taking lessons from a recent note in Cooks Illustrated, I took the buttercream frosting and cemented the cake back together and filled in the craters on top (just the size of the hand of a two year old, not so coincidentally) with some left over chunks. I cut the top layer into a smaller round, a 6 inch round over an eight inch bottom layer, to make it look fancy. Yeah, right, fancy. Sam and I frosted that puppy to within an inch of its life, such a life as it might have looking at three hungry faces. Sam insisted on not only frosting it, but also putting sugar and some cinnamon dots as well. This is where the scream comes in. I have every cake sprinkle, dot and sugar I own on the counter at this point, when I hear a soft spraying sound. I turn around and Joshua has taken the cover off the little dots and watched them pour on the floor and bounce *everywhere* Did you know that those *&^$# little sugar dots roll forever on tile floors? Yet they seem to somehow resist with all the feistiness of a Winston Churchill during an air raid when it comes to sweeping them up with a broom. The sight of the sprinkles spraying everywhere finally broke me and I gave a hearty "Argh! get out of the kitchen!" Matt came to take Joshua away, perhaps fearing for his progeny's imminent health and well being. Did I mention they have a smart daddy? Anyway, I thought you would enjoy seeing a picture of this creation that would never have turned out the way it did without Daddy's cooking, Sam's creativity and Joshua's, --- well, Joshua's demolition.