Polka-dotted Devils Cake

Above is the picture that my brother, James, gave us for Christmas.  I love it and was so happy to find a place for it right above our family home evening board.  This family home evening board has been working out great, and everyone loves having turns doing everything.  As you can see, Jesikah was the treat this past Monday, which is what this post is really about. :)

Jesikah didn't have a lot of time to make a treat because of after-school activities, but she LOVES to bake (especially desserts).  I told her she needed to do something quick, but she decided this cake was quick enough.  It wasn't,  is what we figured out part way through.  Regardless though, I was trying to help her get it made quickly and adding ingredients into the mixing bowl.  She started freaking out because I hadn't sifted the flour and I didn't mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.  She is very much a perfectionist and I was helping to move this along quickly.  Well, about this time, I told her I was not going to get yelled at for helping so she could finish alone and I went upstairs.

Later, after it was baked, she wanted my help putting the layers together.  While I was transferring the top layer to the cake, a chunk fell off!  You can't imagine her dismay!  I quickly repaired it and started frosting hoping to get it done before she saw it, but it was not quickly enough.  Again, she starting freaking out and was blaming me for everything that was going wrong.   Again, I left and let her finish.  She ended up with a two-layer cake that was more waterfall style.  I thought it turned out pretty, but I guess it was my fault that part of the back fell off and the layers had to be tiered.  Anyway, let's just say, this cake was a source of contention not only between us, but between everyone because Jesikah couldn't take her turns in the game we were playing because she kept having to leave to work on the cake.

When it was all said and done, Eric said something like, "We should have known better than to make a devil's cake for family home evening."  Everyone laughed at the irony!  The devil is the father of contention, and contention was what we had a lot of all during the process.  So we determined, we would not have anymore devil's cakes for family night! :)