The Dauntless Divergent Cake

I promised myself that I would try to relax this weekend by participating in the Dauntless Read-a-Thon and make the Dauntless Cake (Previous entry with promise here!). I've never made a complex cake like this. In all honesty, I find baking to be a rather tedious endeavor. I prefer making things like stews and soups and things like that. Like today, we're making 2-Can Stew in the crockpot.

But I really wanted to try the cake. I mean, I love being able to connect things I love together. So cooking and reading was a combination I was so excited to try. Here is my photographic journey of MY FIRST LAYER CAKE.

1. Shopping. Had to get the ingredients I didn't have my in pantry already. My daughter (3) came with me and helped me pick out the ingredients. Like, which brand of Devil's Food Cake and which two containers of frosting I should get. She "drove" us by riding in the little car at the front of the cart.

2. I got home, unloaded the groceries and got ready. Let's start with the cake batter. . . I only had one cake pan. I have a feeling there might be some somewhere, but not without digging or doing something STRESSFUL! Oh, and my pan was 9". . . sigh. . .and one of the mixer pieces was missing. . .it's a make-it-work moment. So here's the cake mix based on the directions:

3. I split the cake mix, cooked and waited.

 

4. I get tired of waiting and I decide to make the frosting, because it dawned on me that I have to actually toast the coconut and almonds myself.  So I made the frosting according to the directions. {BOOK BREAK!}

The frosting mixed with coconut and almonds for the layers.

 5. I let the cakes cool {BOOK BREAK!} and I divided them into the layers. I didn't perfectly split the batter and the pan was too big, so the top layers are a little wonky. That is alright, though, because it'll still be delicious!

6. Then I had to make sure I had enough filling and frosting. Thankfully it worked out perfectly!

 

7. And now the final frosting of the outside of the cake was done with all the little bits of parchment/wax paper (I used the leftovers from the ring at the bottom). I got out my daughter's Happy Birthday footie cake-stand. And here it is!

 8. READY TO EAT! {but first. . . cooling. . . and a BOOK BREAK!}

 9. And here's the inside.

10. Finally. . . mmmmmmmmm delicious!