Cake Disappointment

I have had the privilege of having wonderful people go before me and leave legacies. One of those is my mother. My mother is an extremely gifted cook and I have said numerous times that I have a lot to live up to in the cooking department. Yesterday I struggled living up to that legacy. It was Pappaw's birthday. What do you get someone who is 88? I decided a cake was the right choice. The pan I made it in was a little bigger than a regular 9x13 pan. I decided instead of it being thin, I would carve it into something or layer it. The final decision was layering it. I cut the cake into two pieces and stacked them, trimmed around the edges, and began icing it. I didn't have enough icing to put in the middle and around it, so I just did a thin layer of it. Then I decided it would be a "grand" idea to make home-made icing to put on top of it all to make it look presentable. WRONG IDEA. Let me back up some...lemon cake, lemon icing, then home-made chocolate icing. Kind of gross, but I was trying to salvage it. So, made the icing, and as I spread it it hardened, making the spreading part difficult. Eventually there was a crack down part of it, making it look like someone's bottom. Sad, pathetic cake. I said several times my mother would be very disappointed.

Happy Birthday, anyway, Pappaw!

Still enjoying our trip.

We're here 3 more days.

Think I could convince Andrew to move here?