You know that chocolate nutella strawberry cake I was mooning over?  Yeah, this one from The Pioneer Woman’s blog:

It was in fact made for my birthday week, and it lived up to expectations.  Because it was going to travel, we made one layer at a time and consumed it at two different times.  It worked well that way, but man, one slice wasn’t enough.  I would have eaten that entire cake by myself if no one had been around to watch my shame.

Fortunately, I have friends who save me from myself.

The cake was actually so good that we made it again for family weekend a few days ago.  This time, we went all out and put both layers together at the same time.  It was more satisfying per slice, but definitely more prone to collapse.  Which The Pioneer Woman herself has experienced, but only when she made it into a four-layer cake.

Two was enough to topple ours.

Still, it was absolutely delicious and practically perfect in every way.  I would eat it again.  And again.  (Please ignore my poor photography.  Ours might have looked like the sad version of PW’s cake, but it did not taste like the sad version at all.)

In other news, I have washed dishes before going to bed several nights in a row.  It’s a major household upkeep accomplishment for me.

And Peanut was well, then he was really really sick, and now he is on the mend.  Whew.  I did not enjoy thinking about our household sans Peanut.  I know he’s a dog and his life expectancy is limited, but I’ll channel my inner Scarlett O’Hara for now and say, “After all, tomorrow is another day.”  I’ll worry about Peanut’s short life expectancy tomorrow.  Today, I will enjoy leftover chocolate cake and will simultaneously give my dog a pat on the head.