Success!

It looks like chocolate cake.

Swoop your finger through the frosting, and it'll taste like chocolate cake.

But it's strawberry cake in disguise.

Three uniquely disastrous times I've tried to make strawberry cake. It's the only layered treat that gives me trouble every time. It refuses to taste delicious. It loves to fall apart. When I cry in defeat, it laughs in triumph.

One attempt was beautifully pink but very dense. Another time the frosting was oddly runny and the strawberries on top slid off. Mostly recently the inside was perfect, but the frosting was so thick and lumpy that it broke off and took pieces of cake with it.

Two cakes ago, I nearly cried and gave up. But then I rallied my spirits and told myself: You can do it. Fourth time's the charm. Or perhaps it's the fifth time that's the charm.

It was the fourth time, reader.

(I made it for one of my coworkers who found a job he likes more. We celebrated his departure at work today. I didn't want to overshadow his achievement, so I did not mention my own. But now that I've mentioned it here, I feel great. Extra great.)