It was the best of cakes. It was the worst of cakes. It was a day of a beautiful cake and a day of a cake disaster.~ ME

So began my boss’s day.

The day began as any other weekday, except today was Boss’s Day. I am blessed to have an awesome boss so I thought an awesome cake for that awesome boss would be most appropriate. I went through several ideas in my head before finally deciding on a Pumpkin Layer Cake with Homemade Whipped Cinnamon Butter Cream.

I slaved away in the kitchen baking the cake and allowing it to cool before cutting into four perfect layers. Well, maybe not PERFECT. I had just finished the butter cream and popped it in the fridge for frosting the next morning.

  

I awoke early, finished the assembling the cake and frosting, and voila! A. True. Masterpiece! Boss would surely LOVE this!

I carefully placed the cake in the carrier and loaded it into the floorboard of my truck. I left early as to avoid as much traffic as possible. The roads were clear and I was on my way.

I was merrily listening to the radio and singing terribly off key (Luke Bryan I am not), and was almost at my destination when the unthinkable happened. Although I had allowed plenty of room between myself and the work truck in front of me to bar ANY unforeseen traffic circumstances, the $%#@! to my right apparently decided there was just enough room to squeeze in her enormous Cadillac between myself and said work truck.  As I begin screaming an entirely new level of profanity from my drivers seat, it got worse. All of a sudden… BRAKE LIGHTS!!!

My worst fear in these situations. She was too close to the truck in front of her and as he applied brakes, she slammed on hers. I swerved off the road into the median to avoid the collision that was now taking place directly in front of me. She couldn’t stop in time and WHAM! Right into the back of the work truck she went! I barely scraped by the entire accident.

Thinking a sign language gesture would have probably been appropriate in this situation, I refrained, and decided Karma had bit her nice and hard and I got to watch. I was shaking my head over the entire thing when I looked down into the floorboard. 

GASP!   SHOCK!   SHUDDER!   SHEER Disbelief! 

Cake carrier on it’s side, and beautiful layers of pumpkin cake EVERYWHERE! Are you kidding me? Hours of work on that cake RUINED by an impatient driver CLEARLY driving with a Walmart Driver’s license!

I made it to the office, glad I was in one piece even if my cake was not. Oh.. it was sad. The layers were in tact, but all over the place in the carrier with most of the silky sweet butter cream all now decorating the inside of the carrier. My rosettes and mini pumpkins that I meticulously placed looked like a giant, orange MUDSLIDE! One, BIG, HOT, MESS!!!

Armed with my fingers and a plastic knife I went to work to try to repair the damage. I managed to reassemble the layers for the most part, but overall, it was to very little avail. Sigh.

Thank goodness I took “Before photos”.  Sometimes you just have to laugh.

It was a far, far better cake that I baked, than I have ever baked; it was a far, far better frosting that I went to than I have ever used.

Pumpkin Layer Cake with Whipped Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. Allspice
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Combine sugar, vegetable oil, and eggs in a large mixing bowl; mix well. Sift dry ingredients into a separate bowl; stir into oil mixture, beating well. Stir in pumpkin puree.Pour batter into two greased and floured 9-inch round layer cake pans. Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes. Turn out onto racks to cool. When cool, split layers in half using a cake wire, fishing line, serrated knife or fishing line. I prefer the cake wire, although the layers in this photo were cut with fishing line.

Whipped Cinnamon Butter Cream:

• 1 stick butter
• 3 and 3/4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream; more if needed (I used 4)

Directions:

Beat butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add in the powdered sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and heavy cream and beat until light and fluffy, adding in more heavy cream if necessary, to get the desired consistency. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days.

In Memory…