So there is the cake, which mostly followed the template of a rum cake but included some notable recipe changes (insofar as I was following a recipe, anyway) -- namely the replacement of coconut rum with dark rum and coconut cream pudding with vanilla pudding. I also put about 1/4 cup of beer into the batter. Aside from the cake sticking to the pan a bit -- likely because I didn't grease the pan well enough (the icky feel of the Crisco made me want to vomit, so I got that part over with as quickly as possible; also note that I broke the cake in three places when trying to get it out) -- it turned out smashingly. I think in the future I'll modify my recipe to include more rum and sugar and forego the glaze since the coconut rum isn't exceedingly rummy and the glaze kind of limits the extra sugary goodness to the outer edges, but I'm still proud of my first cake-baking experiment.

I'm a little disappointed with my mother's reaction, though. I mean, I wasn't expecting her to be super enthusiastic or dance a little jig because I baked her a cake -- she bakes cakes all the time, so it's not like I expected her to regard it as a super amazing feat -- but the way she practically scoffed at it irks me. She'll grant that it tastes pretty good and that I did a pretty good job for a first-timer -- because it does, and I did, damnit! -- but she still sort of implied that my cake is inferior because I didn't follow a recipe to the letter (heaven forbid someone try to do something different!) and because it doesn't taste exactly like a cake she would make. In short, her response pretty much exemplified everything that I despise about her. So while I actually kind of enjoyed making the cake and will probably make another (or a pie, or cookies!) sometime in the near future -- and this is a ways off, but perhaps I will even send folks baked goods during the winter holidays! -- I doubt I'd ever go out of my way to make a cake for her again.

But maybe I should bake one for my own birthday next week! I wonder if triple sec would work well in a cake...