Happy Birthday With the Power of E

I had to call in sick for Em's seventeenth birthday. Actually, her sister was puking Thursday night; I was projectile vomiting so hard my abs got sore on Friday; Corinna got it Saturday and Em got it Sunday, on her actual birthday. I think it was the norovirus.

So fast forward a week and we're doing the family cake & ice cream thing tomorrow, and Em wanted an orange cake. Corinna tried to talk me into buying a cake to save time because of other obligations I have this weekend, but the only way I could be satisfied was to make one from scratch.

I'm pretty sure the frosting actually outweighs the cake. It was my usual chocolate mayonnaise cake, two cups of flour, three eggs, 3/4 cup mayo, 4 oz chocolate, etc. The frosting was made from three pounds of cream cheese, three sticks of unsalted butter, some confectioner's sugar, vanilla and food coloring. I doubt the cake weighed anything like four pounds, so I'm thinking I've found a magical 1.58:1 ratio of frosting to cake.