Ellie May Cake!!

Well, the birthday cake I worked so hard on for Shawn ended up as an "Ellie May" cake. Like Ellie May Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies.....the character my dog is named after.....anywho, in case you aren't familiar with her, she is an absolutely terrible cook! Her cakes and bread and cookies crack teeth and have similar properties to concrete....only Jethro can eat her food (he has a 6th grade ejecashun!!!). Poor Shawn started to eat some, and didn't say anything....I knew it wouldn't turn out right (he wanted it made with splenda, so I used that stuff....when it started to crackle upon contact with the butter I knew this would be bad....not to mention that a huge bag of the stuff was as light as a rice cake! We both agreed that the Splenda is to blame). I told him I thought it tasted bad and a box cake would have been better....that's when he asked if he could tell me what he was thinking and said it was an Ellie May cake! Luckily, my feelings aren't hurt too easily about bad cooking (remember the jello no-bake cheese cake that I used too much milk in, but my daddy ate every bit of it), so I laughed until my side hurt and told my parents about it (I was kind enough not to offer daddy a piece, he's had a rough enough weekend as it is). The icing (remember the 9 cups of sifted powdered sugar....)turned out great....buttercream! And, of course, the raspberries and blackberries tasted good! It actually looked kinda pretty and a little patriotic. So, needless to say, I will not be leaving teaching to enroll in a Cullinary Institute! Moral to this story: Splenda lies! You can't easily replace sugar in a recipe with Splenda! Soooo...you will just have to consider it a one day splurge and not focus on all that sugar! I consider myself very fortunate that I never dreamed of becoming the next great pastry chef or baker or any type of fancy person who makes fancy food for others to consume!