I may not be the Ace of Cakes, but perhaps the Jack?

As I've stated many times on this here blog, while I can generally cobble together a pretty yummy sweet treat (with some notable exceptions), said baked goods generally taste a lot better than they look. I am a bit of a baking slob.

All that may be changing, however, because look what I just made -


A southern style butter pecan cake with a maple cream cheese frosting!

It looks good, right? Take a closer look...


Okay, in the interest of full disclosure, I had some help making this cake look so good. A lot of help from a real Ace of Cakes, Mr. Kenneth Nix, with whom I'm doing a kind of mini-apprenticeship while I'm down in SC helping my mom as she goes through chemotherapy.

Kenneth is a whiz with frosting. He swirls that icing bag with the greatest of ease, creating basket weaves, stars, and general loveliness. He is exceedingly patient, laughing with me rather than at me as my unsteady hand made a horrible mess on the cake dummy and then later on some real cakes. But with some practice, he had me decorating cupcakes by the end of my first session, and, really take one more look at this cake.