Yes, hard to believe, but it is true. My hubby,in his never-dying support for my hobbies, found this recipe to pass along to me. This recipe was featured on Lifehacker and called for a “throw together stuff from your pantry for when you need a choco-fix”- chocolate cake made in a microwave. I had heard of something similar a while back, but it called for a regular cake mix instead. Either way, today I decided to give the quirky recipe a try. I really wanted to video the whole 3-minute (and 30 second) adventure, but since I used a ginormous coffee cup, you never could see the cake rise in the video. Oh, well.
Okay, so the cake did turn out like the Lifehacker demo. It did taste gummy and like a cheap brownie cake. I souped it up,though. I am talking a little butterscotch pudding, chocolate syrup, and powdered sugar (I ran out of whipped cream!). It managed not to taste so bad after all that, but so would cardboard. So would I eat this if I were fiending for chocolate in a desperate situation? Probably not. That is what cars and stores are for. Will I play with it some more? Uh, yes. It is me after all we are talking about. I will probably even try to Weight Watcher it. I also think I will add a flavored hot chocolate mix, like raspberry, for extra sweetness. The possibilities are endless, at least in my world.
This was fun to do. Better than laundry! There are some tips the Food Hacks give, like adding chocolate chips in the mix. I also like the idea of making it into a gift, a cup with the recipe and dry ingredients in it. Clever. If you read on further in the online article, you will find similar quirky recipes, like kneadless bread, and other jazzy comments about this microwaved cake. I especially like the one that says, “Only a stoner could have come up with this”. Ganja Blue, I agree!
Bon Apetit, everyone! And thanks to my man for helping me live THE dream-(p.s. don’t forget to scroll down and read my man’s post)
I am so excited. This is my first “Tuesdays with Dorie” or to be referred to from here on out, TWD, post. This week’s recipe was Kugelhopf as chosen by Yolanda of The All-purpose Girl. I am so happy to be in such culinary company! I was even happier that my Kugelhopf even made it into the ballpark of looking like Kugelhopf! As I write this, I have just had 2 slices of mine toasted and with strawberry jam, accompanied by chocolate truffle coffee. It is amazing how such quaint treats can be made right in your home.
The only problems I had with my first go at making Kugelhopf is that I was unsure of how the dough should look in the different stages and how it should be applied to the pan. Also, my dough did not rise to the top of the pan at the “final rise”-stage after several hours (7) of waiting. I finally threw in the towel and popped it in as is. The result was not too shabby. I was happy with it. At least it resembled a baked treat! It also tasted like a buttered croissant. The kids ate it, especially since I substituted raisins with Craisins, and brushed the outside generously with honey butter. I also did more than just sprinkle powdered sugar, I dropped it on! It may be a while before I make this again. It takes some time and with kids (the baby is in the background fussing), it can be a little difficult,although, my seven year old son did help add in the sugar and butter and he and my oldest daughter took some of my pictures.
Anyway, I am so happy to be here. I can hardly wait to do the next challenge,arborio rice pudding (vanilla or chocolate). BTW, all my recipes are coming from Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan. I am not allowed to post the recipes, per TWD rules, but they are floating around. Also, I bought my copy for a really good price at Jessica’s Biscuit. It is like the online Wal-Mart for books! O.k., gotta get to the baby!
Okay, here are the pics from last night’s Halloween happening. Not much went on. The boys were grounded from trick o treatin’ and had to stay indoors to help pass out candy. They did a great cheerful job. Savannah helped me decorate outdoors and the cupcakes. Both were a lot of fun. Even though we did not go trick o treatin’ we did manage to get dressed up. Gabby had a total of four costume changes, being the lil’ diva that she is. We did watch some light scary movies, The Corpse Bride and Jaws. It was a pretty tame night. Hardly any trick o treaters. Did anyone else get an unbelievable amount of high schoolers at their door? I mean I am a believer in being youthful and all, but 6-foot high school boys with “OMG”-girlfriends should really stick to their own crowd! Although, I guess trick o treatin’ could be a creative, cheap date and it is better than drinking and driving! Okay, I have second thoughts. Maybe it is not so bad after all.
Speaking of teenage boys, Savannah’s sweetie surprised her again this week with flowers AND and an Easy Bake Oven. He delivered the oven in a cute way by leaving it at the door and brought trick o treatin’ to her, or maybe he was just too scared to face me! Either way, I am so jealous. I have always wanted an Easy Bake oven. I think we will use it tonight or tomorrow.
Okay, well after an already busy day with still a lot more to go, I think I am going to go take a nap with hairball. Tonight, the kids and I are having “Fancy Restaurant” night at home. Something new and CHEESY I thought we could try. We are all going to get kinda dressed up (even Gabby) and eat at the rarely used formal dining room table.
Friday night, Savannah and I started decorating three cakes needed for the neighborhood’s Fall Festival and a birthday party. Now, let me start off by saying that she is naturally gifted at such things. I,however, am not. It takes me classes. It takes her just one demo, then she takes off and running with it! I admire her natural talent.
Here are the pictures of the cakes. Savannah did the Casper Cake from beginning to end. She baked, carved, crumb coated, and decorated it. Next time, I will have her make the buttercream frosting and colors. I did the Smiling Jack o’Latern one in a cake mold pan. We both tackled the Spiderman Cake. This was a challenging cake. It was for my good friends’ little boy’s second birthday party. I had several ideas for this cake. I even bought the small Wilton Spiderman cake pan. I ended up not using it and tried a varied version of a demo I saw on Youtube. I was in a bind though. I could not find a cake box and board big enough to present the cake. The board is used for extra space to add borders to a decorated cake, as well as, carry the cake on. I was unable to add bottom borders to my cake without risking smashing the cake from lifting. Once again, I was upset with Hobby Lobby for not carrying boxes and boards big enough for the cake pans they sell. I also do not have a strong free-hand style, so I struggled with decorating Spiderman. Next time, I will try using fondant for him. I have never used it, but for a small scale project, buying it from the store would be okay. Luckily, my daughter had a great free-hand, so she finished the details for me and even did the writing! I also placed the cake on an over-sized clear cutting board. Not only did it help carry the cake, but it was so easy to cut the cake on. The cake was a big hit. Not one crumb was left. I will have to get with my neighbor to see how our Fall Festival cakes fared at the cake walk.
Let me also give Duncan Hines a shout out! They really do have the superior cake mix above all the other commercial mixes.
Okay, I am over and out.
This is the cake that Savannah and I made for my friend Linda’s fortieth birthday party. It was made with Duncan Hines dark chocolate fudge cake mix, a sweet cream cheese filling, frosted with chocolate ganache, topped with chocolate dipped strawberries and a chocolate shavings border.
To date it was the easiest and most elegant cake to make. It was a great present for a wonderful friend.
Did I not mention that we are busy folk around these here parts?
We’ve had birthday parties, karate, a trip to Wichita Falls, AT&T TV & Internet installation for two days, PTO Meetings, Curriculum Nights, cakes to make (for the b-day party mentioned above) and a million other things I’ve probably forgotten.
We have pictures of the cake (of course) and pictures of Gabby (of course) but the camera is downstairs and I’m upstairs so I think you’re S.O.L. until tomorrow. MBM wants to show off her latest culinary creation so I’m fairly confident she’ll be updating tomorrow so you all can tell her how great her latest cake looks. I had a bite or 10 and it tasted as good as it looks.
In other news, the cake class MBM is enrolled in will start (again) tomorrow night. Keep your fingers crossed that the teacher actually shows up this time. If not it will not be pleasant around the Little household tomorrow night.
More importantly… Savannah went on her first date Saturday night. Her boyfriend Aaron came to meet the parents Saturday afternoon before we left for the birthday party. He seems like a nice lad. MBM talked his head off, Gabby cried, Justin bugged, and I sat there quietly and didn’t say much like a good dad should. Of course they talked about us that night and he doesn’t think I like him. I think my silent treatment did the trick. Anyway, they went to dinner and then to a friend’s house where the boys played Guitar Hero and the girls probably sat around and giggled like… Teenagers. She had to be home by 10:30 and they rolled in at 10:29. We’ve asked if there will be a date two but the Mouth of the South hasn’t decided. I’m thinking there will be. I’m thinking if there is I might have to borrow a shotgun or two from Poppa so I can be sitting downstairs with them pretending to clean’em and I do my Dirty Harry “Do You Feel Lucky Punk” routine. Should be entertaining.
Rocky the dumb dog is barking at a mosquito. Gotta go put him up for the night. Pictures and such tomorrow. I know… I said that last time. Maybe you all should start your own little sites and then you’ll see it’s not as easy as you think!
Ok, so I’m back home and we’ve been busy. Very busy. Extremely busy.
The day I landed we had to hit HEB to grab some groceries since all of our food was lost during the hurricane. We didn’t have power at the house for about 4 days so the stuff that didn’t get taken and used by our friends had to go to the dump. HEB was the only store in the vicinity that had grub.
Sunday we went to church.
The kids finally went back to school today. They were out for more than a week. We noticed that we did get some water damage in our kitchen on our lovely hardwood floors. Gotta get the insurance folks involved in this one. We’ve cancelled our Comcast high-speed internet service and cable since they are awful. The internet only works when it wants to and it gets really old when your 6,300mi away and trying to talk to your wife and her internet keeps going out. So, AT&T will be out this Thursday to hook us up with better internet and cable. Hopefully better. We got free installation and all that jazz and the monthly charge is about the same for more services. Comcast bites.
I also switched our home phone service from Comcast (they bite) to a VOIP line from Vonage. It’s only $25/mth and we get unlimited local and long-distance calling to anywhere in the USA and some other places we’ll never call.
Then I got a quote on a fence to keep Rocky contained. It’s not cheap. Hopefully I’ll get that done before I leave again.
Today we went to IKEA to get furniture for the boys room since they have virtually no place to put their clothes and toys. We walked out of there with two dressers, one big multi-drawer thingy for their toys, and a couple of cool lockers for their room. Now I have to put them all together! That’s not the worst part though. The worst part is that IKEA had no air-conditioning so we had to shop in the 90deg heat. I was not happy. Not only that, the store is laid out in such a way you have to walk down every single aisle to get to the check-out counters. EVERY SINGLE AISLE and the place is huge. The prices might be right but the layout pretty much stinks when there is no A/C. I understand their selling tactics but I don’t like’em.
Gabby is being Gabby. Pretty and prissy and happy more often than not. I’ve taken a few new pics that I’ll put up on her site tomorrow (hopefully). In the meantime, you can see a silly video I took by clicking here.
I found a tiny little snake outside last night. Picture below.
Carolina is at her latest cake-making class at Lonestar College. The class was supposed to begin at 6pm and the instructor is nowhere to be found. It’s now 6:21pm. There are other people there waiting with her so she has the right day, time, and class location. Lonestar College bites too!
And… We’ve started our running routine again. We ran last Friday and today and plan on running 4 days a week for 3 to 4mi per day. Hopefully I’ll get it back up to 5 or 6mi again soon. I need it.
O’yea, the boys have also started back with Karate and Savannah is rehearsing for her play after school. The play will run from Oct. 15 - 20. Expect video of that when the time comes. I’m hoping to embarass her royally when she gets on stage.
Ok, baby momma is away so baby daddy has to go scrounge something up for din-din. Poor children don’t know what they’re in for with my cooking!
We’ll start posting regularly again… Assuming we can find time!
So, the house is very quiet. Weezer left me to go hang with Wanda. The kids are in school (yay!). The baby is sleeping (double yay!). I am waiting for the exterminator to arrive to rid our house of those ugly ginormous wood roaches! It rained forever here in H town and we were over run by those suckers. We even saw them trying to move their furniture in. Not gonna have it.
I am taking this very foreign and still moment to catch you all up. First Weezer made it into town on Saturday afternoon. She was immediately drawn into her grandmotherly duties and also surprised with a famous Carolina’s Potluck Gathering. My COF’s (circle of friends) arrived to welcome her, all with good eats and treats in tow. We think we amused her. We also celebrated the August birthdays and had a mini tribute to fellow Leo, Rick Springfield, whose birthday did not go unnoticed by his faithful female fans.
Weezer and I have also been making the rounds in Houston. Don’t worry, Kari. We have not hit any of the cool stores, yet, but it is nice to have another grown up to shop with and spend all of Gabe’s money with. Weezer has also been helping me keep the boys entertained and the baby rocked and cuddled. She is quite the diva. She has many arms and little helpers who want to be at her beck and call, so she is very spoiled.
Since Weezer’s arrival, I have mysteriously become the proud owner of a beautiful new coffee maker (like Kari’s) and Gabby now owns a pacifier she will take (well sometimes). She slept with it for almost 3.5 hours! I felt like I slept an entire night.
I am including a slide show of an assortment of picture taken recently. Many are of the kids and some of the big shin dig the subdivision held for the Olympian Gymnast, Jonathan Horton, outside his home when he arrived from China. Savannah also made her first Cupcake Cake solo, without mom. I also would like to thank my amigos for coming over to welcome my M-I-L. Keith, Frank, Linda, Jorge, Nadine, Shannon you are awesome!
BTW, don’t forget to scroll down and read the other recent posts by my hubby!
Yesterday, I did not answer my cell phone. I did not care where it was or if it was on. I also did not care about my emails or snail mail. All I really cared about was mine and Gabe’s Anniversary Date Night and summoning up some energy to make sure I did not fall asleep in my appetizer! I think we have been looking forward to date night since before Gabby was born. Of course when we imagined date night on the special day, I do not think we imagined our beautiful baby daughter tagging along, but she did. We got her all bathed and purtied up for the special occasion, while Justin and Savannah could not wait to kick us out of the house! I think they are sick of seeing us and hearing us hush them or nagging at them. So out we went, with all of us smelling good, dressed for our night out, and hopefully prepared for any postnatal disaster! Gabriela did great. All she did was cry for a bit to let me know she was hungry during the movie, and thanks to the Hooter Hider that Weezer gave me, that was not a problem for us.
We had a great time! I think when I look back on this anniversary I will laugh at the memory of Gabe using his iPhone in the theater as a flashlight, so we could see how Gabby was doing in her snuggly. Also, waking up to see that Gabe had washed the dishes from the night before. That would have been present enough!
I will also remember making Gabe an ice cream cake for our anniversary. It was my first time ever making one and I hoped it would come out nice for him. Now, he ranks it up there with my Tres Leches, so I guessed he liked it!
Ms. Savannah is also displaying her artistic culinary talents. I have included her awesome Red Velvet Masterpiece she made for this past Saturday’s Potluck held in Ms. Gabriela’s honor. Savannah is really coming into her own with her baking.
So here are the pics of the culinary delights, I hope you enjoy!
O.k. this is not my first time trying to make this Wilton Cupcake Cake. It was a DISASTER the first time I made it for Savannah’s Sweet 16. However, thanks to the lessons learned and advice from the internet and my MIL, I was able to make my friend’s daughter a cute cake, a milestone cake to boot! Here it is!
O.k., so here is the link to yet more pictures of Justin and his summertime antics. He has been my shadow since school has been out. We will soon be dumping Savannah off next weekend to go cavorting the country with her other momma, Angie, and meeting up with the ever elusive James (who started his vacation asap). Justin and I have Scout Camp next week and are Houston bound for a while. That is just more pool time for us!
