This may be the saddest cake story ever.

On June 27th my daughter Stephanie tagged me in a Tasty video Facebook post:

“This gorgeous 4th of July Marbled Cake will add a spark to your Independence Day! “

I loved it and shared the video as one of my Friday Favorites.  You can find the recipe here.

The following Sunday I baked the three marbled layers.  After they cooled, I wrapped them in clear plastic wrap to store until July 3rd when I would put the cake together and add the finishing touches.

On that fateful Tuesday evening [while I worked to complete my masterpiece] as I put the final layer in place, I noticed a rather larger crack.  Nevertheless I continued and began frosting the cake, hoping the frosting would help to hold it together.  It did not.  One third of my top layer fell off of my cake.  My first inclination was to throw it across the room in the trash.

At that point my brain disengaged and my insanity accelerated: I decided I would smash the broken layer together, invert the cake and frost the bottom.

So I did.

And I turned the entire cake over.

It wasn’t meant to be.

LB and I discussed it at length.  He suggested there may be a problem with the egg substitute that I used.  I thought it may be the way I stored the layers.  Or maybe because I used the wrong size cake pans.  I know better than to tamper with a recipe.  But alas, I did tamper.

Unable to bear the thought of disappointing Stephanie, LB and I headed to Winn Dixie for the ingredients necessary to begin again.

And I began again.

I imagined the Jolly Rancher fireworks would be the most difficult part of the cake creation.  Strangely enough it was the easiest part.

There was no do-over involved.

And because I did not plan on adding sparklers to the finished product [as is shown in the Tasty video], I made extra fireworks.

Not too shabby for a second attempt.

Thank you for taking time out of your day to stop by my blog.