It's The Thought That Counts...Right?

I hate to say it, but I guess I have gotten just a little too sure of myself in the baking world.  What is that saying? "Pride goeth before the fall".  Well I fell spectacularly.  I am of course talking about the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cake which I made for Jim's birthday yesterday.  Being such a good sport, he did eat the piece I cut for him, but the truth is, it was pretty bad.  Let me count the ways:

1. The cake layers.  They were supposed to be made from a rich luscious chocolate cake.  Instead they came out dry, cracked and sunken in the middle. the recipe called for the optional addition of 4 oz of melted bittersweet chocolate to be added into the cake batter.  I did so and it looked gorgeous - as a batter.  Not so much as a cake.  It also lacked the tiniest hint of sweetness, but perhaps being so dry it scraped off a few taste buds, which made the sugar undetectable.
2. The frosting:  This was delicious.  It was touted as a variation on an Ina Garten (The Barefoot Contessa) recipe, which I can believe given that it was made out of icing sugar, butter, peanut butter and cream.  Full fat all of these.  Perhaps she should be renamed the Cardiac Contessa...but I digress.  As delicious as it was, the recipe did not yield enough to fully frost the whole cake - and no it was not because I licked off 1/2 of it from the spatula! 
3. The finished cake:  Just see for yourself how uninspired this cake is.  You can see from the photo that the filling of smashed PB cups had fallen into the endless crevasse of the bottom layer.  The circle of PB cups on the top, could not have been more boring.  Add to that the PB cups that looked as if they were nibbled on....again - not me - and all in all a huge failure. 

The birthday boy and Lily holding the Elvis "Have a hunk a hunk a birthday cake" card she gave him

But its the thought that counts....and to think that we gave up dessert at Mildred's Temple Kitchen to come home to this....

I will be happy to go back to baking cookies for a while!