Anna requested the mousse filling recipe. It's really wonderful. In fact my mother-in-law commented the other day about how good that cake was. Again. Nice!

So here it is:

melt two squares unsweetened chocolate (I do this in my 8-cup glass measuring thing in the microwave)
stir in 1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup cold water
1 sm package instant chocolate pudding mix

refrigerate for 1/2 an hour

remove chocolate mixture from fridge, stir to loosen (since the pudding will set up)

whip 1 cup cream and add to chocolate mixture
refrigerate for at least another hour before adding to a cake

I just used a regular chocolate cake mix--well the trippple (yeah, I know there are 3 p's in that word--I thought "triple" looks better with 3 p's) chocolate--the one that is chocolate and has chocolate chips and pudding or something else in it. But I don't know that that part will matter much. I had too much to do to make a cake from scratch, and my husband seems to like cake mixes better anyway. So I've adapted to cake mixes and seem to manage just fine, thank you.

The original recipe says to use part of the mousse to fill the cake and part to frost the cake. I obviously did not do that. I have a glass dish that is 15 x13, I used 1 and 1/2 recipes of cake mix for that pan, two times; hence, two layers.

When I did my practice run at home just to test this out, I really didn't have much time because I also had to make cookies for pack meeting that night. So I made the cake in the morning, and it sat all day long. I made the mousse but didn't even have time to put it on the cake. But I tasted it--wow! That evening, just before pack meeting, I put some filling between the layers and just left it. Finally later that night, I was asked what the cake was for and if people could eat it. Yes! that's what I wanted to happen, so unfrosted, it was devoured. At least half of it was. And then it sat overnight, uncovered, out in the open, and it disappeared the next day.

Now sometimes I know my family thinks that treats show up at our house only on occasion, but that's not true. We have treats all the time (that's obvious by looking at us), and quite often we'll eat only part of a cake, but not this one. They loved it. Filled but unfrosted. So I decided that meant it was a good cake and worthy of the Eagle.

I guess you didn't really need all of that information, just the recipe, but oh well. But then, you already know I'm a rambler. Right? Yeah, sure you did.

Oh, and in response to the comment about my "fancy grandma shirt" and the fact that I'm not a grandma--I could be a grandma because I'm certainly old enough, and he just thinks it looks like a grandma shirt.

So, on that note, about the grandma bit, I have to tell you this little story--last week Jake and I were in Walmart (where I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time) at the checkout line. There was a young gal in front of me, wearing an incredible amount of make-up which has nothing to do with the story but still haunts me--with a baby. So she and the checker were talking about the ages of their babies and since I can't stay out of a conversation even when it has nothing to do with me (I think I get that from my dad who always talked to everyone), I commented that my baby is 10 and that I have a son who would be turning 20 on the next Saturday. They both dropped their jaws and said I didn't look old enough to have a 20-year old. I laughed and told them I was 50 (now that I've been 50 for nearly a whole year, I'm able to say it out loud). The checker said--my mom is 50 and she doesn't look like you! She thought I was in my mid-30s. Yup. She's my new best friend.

How fun that we got to attend Hunter's baptism. It was nice that they all came to Utah, just so we could be there. He was excited and very cute. And of course it was fun to see Alissa, her family and my sweetie-pie sister Arlene, as well as her husband Duff. Of course holding a new baby is always fun. . .

Dante with his Eagle--a sweet lady in our ward does balloons--Jake calls her a "great balloonist." And she is. How very fun.


The dad and mom. Here I am in my, as Corky calls it, "fancy grandma shirt." Cracks me up.

Dante receiving his Eagle. Yipee!

All alone, awaiting his fate.

The Eagle, in his place of honor.

The Cake! I was so happy with how this turned out. It was one of those visions you get in your head and then once you start, you wonder what the heck possessed you to think you could possibly do this. But when it was finished, I was happy. I made a chocolate mousse filling that was to die for. In fact, one lady told me she was going to die eating it because it was so good. I did a practice run at home just to make sure it would work, and that cake was gone in a flash. So I figured it was good enough to serve. And easy to make!

Okay, I admit, I didn't design the cake. I found this picture on a box of paper. Pretty cool though, huh? Somebody thought I lasered it. Nope. But I liked him.

So boys who earn their Eagle Scout rank make their mothers very happy. Dante is 13 and I'm so glad he finished. Okay that sounds just like more of a sigh of relief, which in some ways it is because now it's done and we don't have to worry about it any more. But I'm glad for him, too. He worked hard, stayed on track and finished. He had a wonderful project, made baby hats for One Heart World-wide, a very cool organization. I think I talked about that earlier this summer when we were doing the project. A lot of boys just gathered things, but Dante had to work a little harder and get people to come, not just whoever showed up that night for scouts. I'm not trying to dis anybody or their project, this one was just a little different. I'm proud of him!

Two down, one more to go. . .

I realized I never showed the cakes we made for the Cub Scout Cake Auction this year. It is a huge and very fun event--our fundraiser for the year. And this year was really fun. Some years people get into the bidding and some years they don't so much. This was a good bidding year. Corky really had fun--I could tell he was bidding people up, with no intention to purchase that cake. But he would have. He said later he wanted to make sure that the cakes the Cubs made went for a decent price--he wasn't so worried about the cakes other people made, but the kids. He's a sweetheart, but he'd never admit to that.

So here are a few of the cakes. . .

A purse, by Simona--turned out very cute!

You can't see this very well, but it's a graveyard (not the gluten-free cupcakes in the front). I had little molds that made the skeletons and tombstones, and I made chocolate cakes in tiny loaf pans for the graves. It was fun.

Dante's masterpiece. He wanted to make a "cow pie." So this cake (not pie) is in a pie tin with cows on it. Later he wrote "Cow Pie, literally."

Witch fingers we sold on the $5 table--we also made mummies and pumpkins.

This is Witchy-Poo. Remember her from H. R. Puffenstuff? She was going to be cute, but then when I thought of the icky teeth, I just couldn't resist.

And here's my Frankie. I got the idea for him (and Witchy-Poo) from pictures on a napkin. I thought they looked like good cakes! I really liked Frankie's hair.

Jake's corndog. This one cracked me up. He wouldn't give up the idea of making a corndog, even though I really didn't have time to help much and couldn't figure out what he really wanted to do. Well, I was hoping that he'd kind of forget about it, but once the cakes were baking, he just kept talking about it. Dante's cake only used part of a recipe, so we put the rest into a regular-sized loaf pan. I had Jake put it in the freezer for a little while, then he cut it himself. He came up with a popsicle stick (not sure where it came from, hopefully from my craft stuff and not off his bedroom floor. . .) and then we mixed some frosting. I did help him frost because it gets kind of crumbly if you're not careful. But then he wanted to have red and yellow frosting to make ketchup and mustard. He did that all by himself.

I told Corky that he'd better bid on Jake's cake if nobody else was. I didn't need to worry. It was about the 3rd or 4th cake, and people had their paddles in the air before the auctioneer even started. That cake went for $25! Too funny. It was wonderful and Jake was thrilled.

I know we weren't really on the same level as the cakes we made last year, but that's okay. Maybe next year we'll try some of those again. I didn't have a couple that just didn't work, and maybe I can perfect them for another year, too.

People were very generous and we had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of cakes other people made. The last one is fondant and very, very nice. It was really way too pretty for our table! But we sold it anyway.

These are a couple of the cheesecakes that everyone fights over--well, really bids. Holy cow--one group of people pooled their money just so they'd have a chance. I bought one for Corky last year, so we didn't go for it this year--still recovering!

A giant cupcake.

Here is the one with fondant--It has the Cub Scout Promise--the 100 on top is 100 Years of Scouting, and the Arrow of Light on the top layer, then the Wolf, Bear and Webelos symbols on the bottom. I say Wow.

Of course a cake auction wouldn't be complete with the appearance of Barbie. Always a hit.

Spider cupcakes. The couple who bought these then handed them out to all the kids. That was nice.

The blue pool is Jell-O. She scooped out the cake, cut the Jell-O in the right shape and plopped it in. Of course the little boy whose mom made this cake really, really wanted it back. He's a dinosaur fanatic. Nice that his grandpa was there, with his cash ready to go.

A Rubik's Cube! How fun is that?

This was Emily's and Richard's contribution--of course all the boys wanted it. Zombie vs. Robot vs. Pirate vs. Ninja, complete with game dice. So very awesome!

We have a soup pot luck dinner, provide the bread, which this year one of our old scout leaders decided he was going to make rolls instead of bringing soup or having us buy the rolls from Costco, like we did last year. There is always so much soup--and it's always very wonderful--that he figured his little pot wouldn't be missed. And we loved the rolls! He and his mom made over 300. I'd say that's some kind of dedication. It's very fun because the last couple of years we've gotten families to come who have nothing to do with Scouts, but because it's Scouts, they contribute. It has become a very fun tradition. I love it!