Thank you, all, for your stories. I admit I laughed out loud at most of them. One time, I used to make all my son's birthday cakes, from the age of 1 to maybe 12 or 13. I and he would pick out a theme, and I would "run" with it. I made a bowling alley, an airport, a police and fire station, with construction crews, etc. Much fun. However, one year, the theme was Pirates. We went to the cake decorating store to buy the pirates, treasure chest, tropical trees, ship, etc. (all small and plastic, right?). Then, it was time for me to make the cake. In order to make what my son and I had designed, we needed a large, fairly deep cake. A thick 1/2 sheet cake. Made the batter and put it in the oven to bake. Temp ... perfect. Timer ... set. Now ... wait. Checked it when the timer rang. Middle still gloppy. Set timer for another 15 minutes. Middle, better, but still not solid. I didn't want the rest to burn, so I took it out, and set it to cool. The entire top was solid. I had no idea that I was fooled. After about 10 minutes of cooling in the pan, I turned it over to get the cake out of the pan, and ... what came out was a lovely chocolate cake, with an oval hole in the middle. I was horrified! But ... when life gives you lemons ... (or a large cake with a hole in it) ... I removed one of the sides, and made a lagoon from the empty middle, frosted the cardboard with blue frosting and put the ship in that, then made a couple waterfalls down the "hills of the island" with pirates all over, digging to bury their treasure chest and plastic palm trees on the tops of the hills. It was the best decorating success of all my birthday cakes. My son and I still talk about it! (I did take photos of the process, but not sure where they are, not, about 20 years later).

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