Failed impulse

Last night, as I mentioned earlier, I decided to have a beer or two to celebrate a successful week of work. Of course, to have a beer or two meant that I would have to head to the store to pick up the beer that I would later be drinking.

Shortly after indicating my intentions Rebecca and Jeannette asked that if I could pick them up some candy while I was shopping. Because I am such a nice guy I agreed to pick them up some candy, though they were a little vague about the type of candy they wanted.

When I arrived in the store a few minutes later I started haunting the aisles, just checking things out and looking for inspiration. At one point I passed an end-of-aisle display that contained a number of on-sale cake mixes. I was immediately tempted. I quickly settled on a 'Swiss chocolate' mix, though I didn't and still don't know exactly how a 'Swiss chocolate' cake is any different than a 'chocolate' cake. Anyway, I then made my way to the candy and icing aisles to get my other purchases. Of course, I then when next door to the beer store to complete my acquisitions.

Almost as soon as I returned home I started the baking process, though to much less excitement than I expected. Not surprisingly, given that I was using cake mix, things moved quickly and I soon had two cake pans in the oven.

Until this point things were going well. Everything was working out exactly as I might have expected. It was only when I took the cake pans out of the oven that things started to go awry.

Though the cakes look fine, they weren't particularly interested in coming out of their pans when I turned them upside down. Instead of forcing the issue I decided to let them rest for a while. This is a trick I have used in the past to some success (I have always presumed that it has something to do with the baked good sweating and then loosening any of the item that is stuck to the pan).

Sadly, in this case, even after the extended sitting period, the first cake pan was left with about 25% of its content when the cake eventually did come out. Of course, the resulting cake was still circular, just not particularly iceable or photogenic.

Given this outcome I decided to let the second cake pan and cake rest a little while longer. Sadly, even with this additional rest/sweat the outcome was similar, though maybe somewhat less dramatic.

Given these two unstackable cakes I was somewhat at a loss as to how I should proceed. Instead of really dealing with the issue last night I decided to just cover them and leave them until this morning, hoping that I would somehow come up with a solution.

My solution, as unglamorous as it was, was hardly even complete. This morning I iced the more complete of the two cakes (and then had two pieces for breakfast). The second cake is still laying covered on the counter. I have no idea what to do with it as spreading icing on each piece like you would jam on a scone just seems strange and I am otherwise drawing blanks about appropriate consumption means.

Anyway, this outcome was really not what I expected when I dropped $1.49 on a cake mix last night. I really thought that things would be easier and not nearly as cognitively complex.

If you have any ideas about what I can do with the uneaten remnants of the first cake let me know. I would prefer not just composting it in a few days, or once it starts showing signs of mold.