Happy Birthday, Hannah!

This was fun. I don't "do" cakes. Oh, I do bundt cakes with wonderful success, and in-the-pan cakes are good too. But fancy decorating? Never been my "thing". I admire beautifully decorated cakes. I've just never had the "yen" to make them. I always ordered birthday cakes from the local bakery. It was part of the birthday tradition.
Yesterday was Hannah's birthday. Since she bought me a Butterfly Cake pan, I assumed she wanted a Butterfly Cake. (Simple deduction skills at work.)
So, I found a cake recipe that I had used before http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Egg-Free-Dairy-Free-Nut-Free-Cake/Detail.aspx, looked up a couple of frosting recipes http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Caramel-Frosting-VI/Detail.aspx?prop31=2 and http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pudding-Icing/Detail.aspx?prop31=2 and decided to give it a go.

I greased and floured the pan. Suspecting that any "trouble" I might have in removing the cake from the pan would come from the lower wings and body, I concentrated my efforts there.

I sifted all the dry ingredients together.

And since it was a cake, I sifted them again.

Mixed all the wet ingredients in and then stirred in some chocolate chips.

Poured the batter in the pan and put it in the oven. The directions said 30 minutes, well, make that 45 minutes later, the cake was finally finished.

While the cake cooked, I made the Pudding Icing.

It did look funny while it cooked.

But I came out ok in the end.

I made the caramel frosting. And de-panned the cake.

Sadly, the lower wings came out fine, the upper wings. . . not so much. And in my haste to "save" my poor butterfly, I applied the caramel glaze too soon.

Awww, poor thing.

This is as good as it got.

We added candles and celebrated anyway!

Hannah made macaroni and cheese and John made garlic butter shrimp and informed us he wants to go to culinary school. His challenge is finding a culinary school that has a football team.