So why do my homemade cakes always turn out like crap?

I loved my fan assisted oven!  I hate having those heating elements under my food!  My oven in the UK didn't have any heating elements in the oven cavity itself and it was great because it was heated evenly and it didn't matter where in the oven you put your food.  With heating elements it's always hotter at the bottom and colder at the top so if you are baking more than one thing you need to keep shuffling them around or you'll risk one being burned while the other is still undercooked.

Yeah, I'm still learning how to get along with this oven (nearly three years in).  It seems to cook hotter in the middle & higher, than at the bottom -- which I found with this last layer cake, so I moved the pans around a bit midway through to compensate.

From a taste testing point of view, your cake was perfect -but now gone! 

Isn't part of the job of icing to cover things like cracks? Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, it all goes to the same place and it made for a happy tummy.

Aww!   Thank you.  I'm just really glad you liked it & it was edible.  I don't think it'd be up for any 4-H Club blue ribbon awards, but you're right - it did taste good.