Mardi Gras Checkerboard cake

*So, here is my disclaimer stating that Mom did almost all the work here (I helped tint cake and icing, and acted as "supervisor" lol) But she said I had to include it on my blog lol*

So, Mom finds a checkerboard cake pan set, and immediately buys it. Then tells me we've got to make it. So of course I say why not?  Then I start to read the directions, and a sense of dread sets in, because there's NO WAY we can screw this up! *evil laugh*

Now, Wilton tells us we need 3 cake mixes. Mom and I know better, so we only used two. I mean, think about it. This is a three tier cake. You can make two nine inch cakes from one cake mix. (FYI: two was JUST enough. Going with three would give a certain freedom, and certainly make tinting your cake easier. We had to divide our 2 boxes of mixed cake batter into three containers).

I think we used every measuring and spooning apparatus in Mom's kitchen (and she has a ton!).

Mom also decided to label the colors 1, 2, and 3. In the long run that made it more complicated. If all else fails to look at what you've already done to make sure  you don't repeat the same color in the same spot.  So you fill each ring with a designated color. This is seriously a pain.

THEN when you are all proud of yourself for managing to pour the batter in, it tells you to lift the divider out. I seriously squealed in fright the whole time while Mom laughed at me.

But it worked! Mom did mention you lose quite a bit of batter on the divider (yet another reason we probably should have used three...lesson learned). After arguing, confusion, can careful study we got all three poured properly!

I had to turn off the oven light and run Mom out of the kitchen because she kept staring at the cakes lol but they baked fine. Look how pretty the first layer is! (This is after she leveled it off)

And now to ice the cake. We used 3 containers of icing for this bad boy. If you use 3 cake mixes you will need 4 for sure (she went thin on her icing between layers). This is how fancy pants people who take cake decorating classes ice a cake. (definitely not the DC method lol)

She can even ice with help lol

Finished product!!!

I noticed the slight slant to some of the checkerboards. It isn't super noticeable, but there must be a trick to the removal of the divider.  All in all Mom did a great job!