Kyla's Blog

My Birthday Cake June 11, 2025

I’ve had this Betty Crocker cheery chip b-day cake in the same Raggedy-Ann cake pan every year since I was 5. I haven’t made this year’s yet, and I was 40 before I discovered that if you use milk instead of water it doesn’t fall apart. (Even though the box says water or milk! This year I plan to use a can of cream soda.

This one’s from the very first year it didn’t fall apart on me. An un-iced cake showing an image of Raggedy Ann skipping with a jump rope.

Here’s what it looked like for the bulk of my adult life. A friend started referring to it as ‘Pink Mess’ and that’s what I’ve called it ever since. A disaster of a crumbly cake that is barely being held together with a bunch of icing that in an alarming shade of pink.

Still haven’t quite moved beyond pink mess here. Another pink cake covered in sparkles. It's held together a little more nicely, but there is still a clear chasm in the middle that the icing is doing a bad job of hiding.

More recent successes! A white cake with sprinkles and cherries on top vaguely in the shape of raggedy ann jumping rope.

A white cake with sprinkles on a cutting board surrounded by little bug shaped cupcakes also covered in sprinkles.

— Kyla