My food isn't pretty, but it tastes damned good.

Jane asked me to make this cake for her birthday:

This is how it turned out.

We used the red velvet cake that I cut away to make the "blood" crumbles.  She loved it.  Yeah, clearly I'm no pro, but it was fun and I'm not interested in all that perfection.  I actually can make cakes look nicer.  I just don't care to...(still not pro)


I did not do the cake from scratch.  I did not have any red dye and it was cheaper to buy a box mix that to gather the ingredients I have run out of in my house.  I did splurge and try a fancy box mix, though.

I admit, it was almost as moist and lovely as a home made cake - which I do prefer to Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, and other box mixes.  It cost me $4 instead of around $1, but when you consider buying a cake (My favorite store cake is $17 from Costco, but that is also among the cheapest) $4 doesn't seem like much.  The frosting is home made cream cheese.  I don't think I've bought canned frosting more than 3 times in my life and every time I'm disappointed so now I refuse.

Yeah, his box seems super pretentious.  I have been avoiding these products popping up all over the place, but I wanted to make a good red velvet cake for her birthday and I did not want to deal with lots of red food coloring so I took my chances.  Also pretty pretentious that it costs 4X more than the cheapest box on the shelf, but it was definitely better than the generic mixes I've tried in the distant past.