Here’s the celebration I told you about earlier this week … a monster cake with retro flare (I kind of love that the freeze frame in the video looks like the cake is my face!):

Here are a few close ups of the cake and that cake box from the ’70s….

and now a close up of that box! (Grandma G, why did you keep this?)

And finally, the cake that stands half a foot high!

For the cake I used the Best Birthday Cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Then I melted 4 oz. of chocolate, divided the cake batter in half and added the chocolate to one half of the batter.

For the frosting, I adapted the Instant Fudge Frosting from Smitten Kitchen:
Ingredients
6 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
3 cups confectioners’ sugar (no need to sift)
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 T. half-and-half
1 T. vanilla extract

Directions
1. Put everything in a food processor and whirl away until smooth

Voila!