Pinterest Flips and Flops: Best Chocolate Cake Recipe

Welcome!  It's the second Monday of the month, and that means it's time to give my thumb's up or thumb's down on a couple of projects that I've pinned on my Pinterest Boards and give you a chance to do the same in a link-up party.   I'm trying desperately not to be a pin "hoarder".  I'm hoping you'll help keep me accountable to actually DO some of the projects that I think are pin-worthy.  So far, I've had a few FLIPS and a couple of FLOPS!  

Here's the tally for THIS month...

Flip

Best Chocolate Cake Recipe

I found this pin when I was searching for a cake recipe to make Greased Lightning for his fourth birthday.  At first he requested a simple chocolate cake with a purple number 4 on the top.  Simple enough...I thought!  (As a momma who absolutely hates to decorate cakes but does so out of love for her Littles, I'm always grateful for SIMPLE.)  BUT...then his sibs got in on the decision-making process and somehow convinced the birthday boy that he needed a "three level Thomas the Train cake with a tunnel and a real Thomas."  {insert heavy sigh}

So, as I constructed plans in my head for his newly EXPANDED order, I cruised Pinterest and came upon a pin that touted itself as "The Best Chocolate Cake Recipe {EVER}"

I left out the espresso powder because...well, the mere thought of my four-year-old on an espresso buzz left my head spinning.  (We don't call him Greased Lightning for nothin'!)

Now, I'm not gonna say it was THE BEST chocolate cake EVER...but, I actually can't recall eating a homemade chocolate cake quite as moist or as chocolate-y!  So, I'll give it a "best chocolate cake I CAN REMEMBER ever eating."  

By the way...he loved the cake too.  But, let's face it...ANY kind of chocolate cake would have gotten a thumb's up from a four-year-old.  

Flop

Cookie Sheet Cleaner

Let me preface this rant by saying that I could quite possibly own the most disgusting, greased-stained cookie sheet in the midwest.  I'm sure that only a radioactive solvent would EVER clean this bad boy.  But, in my defense, it is a very old tray that I no longer use for real baking purposes.  Last year, it was down-graded to be a "catch all" pan.  I place it on the bottom rack of the oven when I'm cooking/baking something that might drip grease or fixin's all over the place.  

I was excited to come across this budget-friendly cleaning solution recipe for cleaning cookie sheets and other metal cookware.  Unfortunately, even after waiting all evening for the solution to do it's "magic" and after scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing, I was only able to remove the top layer of grime.

Not wanting to give-in too easily, I whipped out one of my everyday-use cookie sheets that had only minimal grease stains on it.  I sprinkled and poured and sprinkled and poured HOPING to have at least ONE clean pan in the end. But, NOPE!  Not even one.  I ended up with two greasy pans and an empty box of baking soda.  

Oh well, grease adds flavor...RIGHT?!

Have you tried any Pinterest projects lately?  Were they FLIPS or were they FLOPS?  I'd love to hear about them.  Link-up your posts below!