Neapolitan Birthday Cake

I like Pinterest.
When my daughter's 7th birthday was coming up, I was browsing Pinterest for cake ideas. She came up next to me to peek over my shoulder. This was a defining moment. I learned that she is as bad as I am when it comes to that site! She was saying to me the same things that go through my mind as I scroll through the Pinterest pics: "Ooh! Look at that!" and "WOW! Click that one!" and "I want that! ...wait, no!... THAT!" and so on.
When she saw a picture of a beautiful Neapolitan cake, that was it. Her mind was made up. That's what she wanted. And, of course, I wanted to make it for her.

Source: sweetapolita.com via Susie on Pinterest

I clicked the link and saw the deliciously beautiful, decadent homemade cake and frosting recipe. Knowing that my time was limited, I had to come up with another plan. Making everything from scratch would have been too much work for the time I had. I had to go to Plan B- boxed cake mix and canned frosting. Quicker, cheaper, easier.



I bought 3 boxes of cake mix (chocolate, vanilla, & strawberry), and 4 cans of frosting (chocolate, vanilla, and 2 strawberry). My plan was to divide each cake mix in half, measure out the correct additional ingredients needed for cake, and bake 2 very thin layers of each flavor. (I was going to save the other half of the dry cake mixes to make tri-colored cake mix cookies.) I would frost the chocolate layers with chocolate frosting, the vanilla with vanilla, and the strawberry with the strawberry. I was going to frost the top strawberry and the sides chocolate, and it was going to look beautiful and perfect for my little girl!

So far, so good.

A little messy, but that's ok... it will be covered in frosting. One layer to go. Oh, and I am holding the plate crooked. That's why it looks lopsided.

OH NO!!!! What have I done? The sides crumbled into the chocolate frosting and I can't fix it with more frosting because I am out!

Think.
Think.
Think.

Got it! Remember the reserved dry cake mix that I was going to make the tri-colored cookies with? Yeah. Change of plans.

I mixed the cookie dough in each flavor, then put each into a large plastic baggie. I snipped off the end of each and piped "the fix" onto cookie sheets and baked them... then waited for them, to cool, and did this...

Not perfect, but hey... better than crumbly sides!

I eventually added a little birthday message with the white frosting that was left. (I know I said I was out of frosting, but I wasn't counting this... this was for writing.) And I made a little border around the top where the cookie met the cake.

Would you like a slice?

So, it's not as pretty and perfect as the one in the Pinterest picture, but my daughter loved it, and that's all that really mattered!