Project #4: Candy Cake

Sometimes I bake.  It doesn't happen often.  I'm not very good at it, but occasionally I get enough courage to give it a whirl. I have to be in the right frame of mind because it could go either way. Half the time things end in a red velvet massacre and a messy kitchen, the other times I'll come out with a solid dessert.  Today, I felt like baking. 

I'm going to a dessert potluck at a new church home community tomorrow evening and I want to make a good first impression.  Yes, I know that's a little silly, but it's the truth.  I'm baking for the proverbial gold star.  Anyhow, Plan A was lavender cupcakes with honey frosting, but the Fred Meyer I stopped at on the way home didn't have any lavender.  I didn't feel like driving out of my way to go to Whole Foods or New Seasons, so this is Plan B.  I've been wanting to decorate a cake like this for a while, but I felt too intimidated to make a cake from scratch and nicely cover it in candy.  Cake mix in a box it is!

Luckily, the odds were with me and it turned out to be quite a lovely evening.  The sun was out and pouring into the house through the living room windows (which Rob cleaned a few days ago -- that was a real game changer).  The front door was open, which is still a novelty because we got a new screen door this weekend (more on that soon!).  The back door was open, which means the kitchen was filled with the sound of wind chimes.  Everything was just perfect for baking.  In fact, everything was quite perfect in general.  

I got the cake in the oven and made red potatoes with rosemary from the garden while it baked.  I took the cake out of the oven, popped the potatoes in, and did my elliptical while watching Dawson's Creek.  The potatoes were perfectly done by the time I finished my work out, so I made salads, put some biscuits in the oven, and cooked steak on the grill, which is a first for me.  Everything was ready by the time Rob got home.  We had dinner together and then sat on the front porch with glasses of red wine.  It was one of those evenings where I felt overwhelmingly lucky.  Walking around my back yard as I grabbed a few herbs from the garden for dinner, I thought how could I ask for anything more.  My cup -- it's over flowing.  And my cake -- it's not burnt!