American Mess Cake

 On Veteran's Day I wanted to make a special cake. I wanted the red, white and blue colors of our beautiful flag. I wanted to capture the majesty of the buildings found in Washington D.C. I wanted to encompass the very taste of freedom. Well it was a major fail. My cake looked anything, but majestic or beautiful. Although it was delicious!!!

The Story: I was in a rush! Getting the chicken marinated, the salads, the sides and all that good stuff. And the pressure I put on myself to make it extra special really didn't help. I baked the cake and didn't wait for it to cool. I made the strawberry sauce and didn't wait for that to cool. So I tried frosting my warm cake and ended up with a glaze and a cake that had absorbed all the runny strawberry sauce. I then, in my desperate attempt to make it look pretty, I added the blueberries around the cake and they just slid off the cake like slow rolling tears! Although it wasn't pretty to look at, the cake was gone in less than a day. Mind you we only had 2 adults, 1 kid and a toddler, and I only had ONE PIECE!

I dubbed the cake: THE AMERICAN MESS

Recipe for Cake: Plain white cake mix from a box

Recipe for Frosting: 2 C confectioners sugar
                              1/2 C butter
                              1 tsp vanilla extract
                              1 Tbsp of milk (add a little more if too thick)
Recipe for Strawberry Sauce:
                     1 pound of fresh strawberries (diced, with tops removed)
                     1/4 C of water (less if you want a thicker sauce)
                     1/2 sugar (more if you want a thicker sauce)
                      Boil until strawberries are soften (about 5 minutes) and then mash (keep some texture)
Instructions:
Take the cakes out of the oven and wait until cool enough to handle. Do not completely cool. I used one 9 in. spring form pan, and two 6in. pans for one box. I placed the largest cake on the bottom and slathered some strawberry sauce and put one of the smaller cakes on top of that. I cut off the top of that little cake and slathered a lot more strawberry sauce on top of that little cake. I then put the last little cake on top of that one. And instead of waiting for the cake to cool (I need to work on my patience), I began frosting the cake. Well the frosting just melted on top of the cake and made a type of glaze. Like the kind you find on doughnuts!!! It was so yummy. I covered the cake as well as I could. I tried garnishing with blueberries, but the blueberries wouldn't hold. So after I started crying because of all the mess, I added some more strawberry sauce on top, mostly the chunks of strawberry. When we cut the cake to eat it, we added some more strawberry on top of the slices!
** Make sure you have some king of depth to the cake stand or where you decide to frost the cake, the frosting will spill over if it is completely flat (see pictures)

Yummy chunks of strawberry. The frosting made a delicious glaze.

 This is what the cake looked like after it was "done". Notice the blueberries on top!

Notice all the gooey yumminess that has gathered at the bottom. Be careful!

              THE AMERICAN MESS