Not Everything I Make is Awesome

This is what I try to tell my co-workers. They don't believe me. Ever since I joined the team, I've been bringing in baked goods quite often and they think I'm amazing. I guess I can let them keep thinking that. But I'll let you in on my secrets.
It was 9pm tonight when I remembered that one of my fellow associates has a birthday tomorrow and I had promised cake. Yikes! A quick scan of my refrigerator showed that I had no ingredients for awesome cake. You know, buttermilk, sour cream, any of that. I had to make it simple.

While I was lacking many key ingredients for awesome, I saw that I did have Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa. That HAS to lead to amazing, right? I stuck with Hershey's and used a recipe I found online for Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake. I had all the stuff on hand and it didn't seem too labor intensive. It was go time.

Look at how perfectly dark and chocolately that looks. So far, so good...

Even Bailey is helping. I was trying to get done quickly and was a bit overzealous with my mixing. She soaked up all the flour that would have fallen to the ground. No sweeping, yay!

OK, so here's where I start confessing how not awesome I am. How can you call yourself a baker and not have Baker's Joy in the house? Seriously. I got lazy and did not butter and flour my pan (did I mention I was in a hurry?) but instead used Pam. I know, I know. You can't see me, but I'm hanging my head in shame.  Hopefully no one will miss those little chunks of cake.

So here's "I'm not awesome" part 2. I had no powdered sugar in my house either and don't realize this until 10pm. I can almost hear the gasps from people who bake on a regular basis. No powdered sugar. This is actually not going to be a surprise to people who know me, I pull stuff like this ALL the time. 

I honestly had no idea you COULD make frosting without it until I googled "chocolate frosting without powdered sugar". This is what I got. It's super runny, but I made do. I'm pretending it's a fancy pants cake and that mess you see above is ganache. What do you think?

So what did I learn today?

1. Keep your kitchen stocked with the basics. Seriously Brandi. What is wrong with you?
2. Never use Pam for your cakes. Stop being too lazy to butter and flour. 
3. Use technology. I have a number of ways to remind myself to do things before it gets late. Time to join this decade, girl. 

Let's hope they like it!

~Brandi