scapulAR, people, scapulAR!

So, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was this past Thursday. I was inspired by reading the Catholic Cuisine Blog and decided that I, too, should make a cake shaped as near as possible like a scapular. Well, the best laid plans and all that coming to fruition, here is my attempt:

Notice how it ends in an ellipsis? That's because of my poor planning, or should I say, my poorly executed plan. I had every intention of getting to the food store by Tuesday night and it just did not happen. I was at the beach all day Wednesday, and couldn't get to the store in time on Thursday, so I was stuck working with what I had in my pantry. It turns out, I had about half as much of the proper icing, no chocolate frosting, and no cake mix. I made a milk- and egg-free cake from allrecipes.com, turned vanilla frosting into chocolate with the addition of too much cocoa powder and some veggie oil, and used the one tube of icing plus the Wilton's cookie icing I always keep on hand to the best of my ability. I'm sure the BVM was happy with my efforts. I know my kids were. Even Barbara and Ron liked it, and neither they nor I are huge fans of "scratch" cakes. Better living through chemicals (and store bought cake mix) I always say.

As for the day at the beach, all the preparation was worth it for the most part. (So I guess really most of the preparation was worth it?) The boys loved the sand, were more or less well behaved, and Rimmy even made it into the water before the day was out. Literally. Right before we headed home, he decided he NEEDED to get into the ocean in a last ditch effort to extend our stay. Will I be doing this again any time soon? Probably not until next summer, but at least I know I can do it now. It's not nearly as scary as I thought it would be.