What's wrong with losing 10 lbs in a month? That's how much I lost my first month when I went on to lose 77 lbs, and I was only 40 back then. I think you should be nicer to your self.
I have not done the Atkins diet myself (I used Richard Simmons FoodMover in 2000 and I'm starting it again now, 19 years later). It's possible you aren't drinking enough water, but it sounds like you are trying to shoehorn yourself into a preconceived notion of how weight loss is supposed to proceed. It's not the norm for weight to simply go down. It's much more normal for it to wiggle around, stagnate at times -- yes, even at the beginning of a program it can do this. What determines your ultimate success is not how quickly and uniformly you drop the pounds, but how you deal with the "failures".
A lot of people recommend weighing only once a week, so you are not as distracted by the daily wiggles in your weight. Personally, I like to weigh daily, and make a mental note of the factors that go into the day's weight - was it before or after breakfast, before or after going to the bathroom, before or after showering, before or after exercising? Did I eat a lot yesterday (assuming I'm weighing in the morning), do I feel puffy or bloated, did I do a lot of exercise this week? I also have a Tanita bodyfat scale, which shows both my weight and an estimate of my percentage of body fat based on bioelectrical impedence. I often find my weight changes while my bodyfat % stays constant, or vice versa. I make a mental note of how that related to my weight fluctuations, as well.
But that's just me - I find the more information I have about a thing, the less I worry about it. Some people are the opposite.
The important thing is to not catastrophize eating the cake and get right back on the horse. Learn something from the experience - you mentioned the cake didn't even taste that good. Maybe you can come up with a better-tasting (or better still, a non-food) treat for your birthday, since cake with tons of frosting doesn't taste so good right now. Maybe the next time you have irrestable sugar cravings, you can plan a much smaller taste of something sweet, and own it. Maybe you can do some introspection about what it was that made you crave so much something that doesn't taste good and makes you feel like crap, and see if there is some other way to satisfy the need that the craving represented.
You don't have to punish yourself to lose weight. It does really help to be aware of what you are eating, and to actually taste your food when you eat it. The Atkins diet and ketogenic diets generally aren't for everyone. You need to find what works for you, and there is usually some emotional work that has to go along with the dietary and activity level modification.
Good luck with your journey!
Rebeccah
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