Homemade Chocolate Layer Cake

Thursday night Craig and I were making a grocery list when Craig mentioned that he'd really like to have a chocolate cake this weekend. So we put it on the grocery list, and Craig came home from the grocery store with a cake mix and a can of frosting. 

When I asked him today if I should make it, he said yes. He wanted a layer cake with pudding in the middle, and that's what he thought he had bought - a mix that had the pudding. When I looked at the mix, it said that there was pudding in the mix - not as a separate layer. So I started looking through cookbooks, and online to try to figure out how to make this layer cake. When I looked in the cupboard for cake pans, I found that I only had one round pan - an additional challenge.

Here's what I did:

I lined a 15x10 inch jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Then I mixed up the cake batter according to the directions on the box. Then I realized that the instructions did not include baking time for my size pan!! Time to guess... I set the timer for a few minutes less than what the box said for cupcakes, and did the toothpick test. And it worked! The cake came out of the oven looking good. After letting it cool completely, I mixed up some instant chocolate pudding - using two boxes of mix but one less cup than the directions called for... I was hoping that would stiffen the pudding so that it wouldn't leak out the sides of the cake. 

I cut the cake into three equal pieces - each about 5 x 10 inches, and spread the pudding on two of the three pieces. Then I put the cake into the refrigerator to firm it up.

Finally, I assembled the layer cake, stacking the three layers one on top of the other, with the piece that didn't have pudding on top of the others. I stirred up the can of chocolate frosting Craig had bought, and frosted the whole cake. Here's what it looks like:

Looks pretty good, doesn't it?  There's just one problem... The frosting wouldn't stick to the cut side of the cake or the pudding. So the back side looks like this:

We're planning to have cake during halftime of the MN Vikings vs. Green Bay playoff game tonight. Based on what I tasted when licking my fingers after frosting the cake, I think it's going to be delicious (especially with a little glass of milk!) even if one side doesn't look too pretty.

Have you ever had challenges making a layer cake? (Or any other food?)