Magnifying Glass....Cake!?

So what kind of cake would you make for a Secret Agent party? We discussed making binoculars out of chocolate donuts. That sounded delicious but complicated.

Instead, I settled on a magnifying glass cake.

It took 2 boxes of cake mix. Seriously, cake mix is really good stuff.
I used one box of chocolate and one box of sprinkle cake.
I made 2 rounds, 1 square, and 12 cupcakes. The cupcakes were just for kicks so as not to waste the rest of the cake mix. They went to the staff in my office!)

I recently read this piece by Gale Gand in the Chicago Tribune. Turns out, even pastry chefs sometimes get birthday cake stage fright! Anyway, I'm not in any way a trained pastry chef, all I know about frosting cakes comes from trial and error. But she mentioned that it was important to chill the cakes - which I've never done before. It did seem to help but I didn't beat the chocolate frosting enough (or something) and it was stiff and hard to work with. I thought it was just me, until I realized that the vanilla frosting was delightfully spreadable. Oh well....live and learn. It sure tasted yummy!

Came out kinda cool, didn't it? And it was delicious. One of the yummiest cakes I've ever made.