Do you ever do things just to spite yourself? I know that sounds awful and very un-self-healthy and all, but really.

Let’s say you’ve been working outside at the farm fixing fence all morning. Well, to be more clear, you have handed things to the main fence-fixer and gotten yourself wrapped up in the darn wire innumerable times. Oh, and you’re having a great time because freezing wind and barbed wire are two of your very favorite things. But you feel like you’re incredibly helpful. Practically professional.

And people are coming to your house later that night for dinner- not the farm house, but your other house, where you’re currently not. You’ll get back there in a few hours and pull together the already planned entree and bread (your awesome friends are bringing all the sides!) and then you’ll make the dessert.

Not a problem.

And further, if you have a lick of sense you won’t make a layer cake. Because 1) time, and 2) you are cursed with an inability to make a layer cake look right. You have suffered from this malady for years, but your catchy mantra is: THE NEXT TIME IT WILL WORK OUT GREAT!

Never mind that you will be crunched for time. No, never you mind. You will make a layer cake. You will.

So you do.

And that NEXT TIME WORKING OUT GREAT thing doesn’t really work out too great after all.

So what do you end up with? A sliding, uneven, gooey Mandarin Orange Cake that tastes remarkably awesome.

It would never be the beauty queen, but it might just be your best friend forever.

And if unlike me, you are blessed with a modicum of spatial awareness, a bit of unclumsiness, and an eye for scale? Yours might look just as good as it tastes.

I salute you.

Mandarin Orange Cake

This is so easy!

Ingredients: (for cake)

One Butter Recipe Yellow cake mix

4 eggs

1/2 c. oil (I used Canola)

1 (15 oz.) can Mandarin Oranges (drained of about 1/2 of the juice)

Ingredients: (for icing)

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. heavy cream

8-10 oz. powdered sugar

the juice of 1/2 lemon

lemon zest (about 2 tsp.)

1/2 of a 3.4 oz pkg. vanilla instant pudding

1 (15 oz.) can crushed pineapple (completely drained)

Directions

Beat the cake mix, eggs and oil together on medium high until well blended. Then using a spatula, gently stir in (by hand) the Mandarin oranges. Divide the batter into 3 greased and floured cake pans.

Bake at 350 for just about 20 minutes- be careful, they bake pretty fast!

Cool the layers, then remove from pans, place on waxed paper on a sheet pan and place in fridge (or freezer) to chill.

To make the icing, mix together all ingredients, beating on high to get the most volume. You may need to add more powdered sugar to get the right consistency.

Assemble the cake. If you’re fancy, you can trim the tops off the layers to make the cake more even, and if you’re not, well, you’re me…