Darn Good Chocolate Cake

 

Remember how I told you all that someday I would be forcing you to hear the recipe for the cake that you all foolishly mistook for a ginormous donut?

Guess what.

Today is that day.

The recipe comes from the book The Chocolate Cake Mix Doctor  by Anne Byrn.

This is what you will need:

100 (meaningless) points to anyone who can reckon what grocery store Lumberjill frequents often.

Alert:  I am not, I repeat I am not at all like the Pioneer Woman.  My pictures are less than par.  So I am going to spare you the step by step photographic journey of how to prepare this exquisite concoction and leave you to fend for yourselves if you get confused along the way.

Alright.

Here is the list of ingredients for the cake:

Vegetable oil spray for misting the pan

Flour for dusting the pan

1 pkg of devil's food or dark chocolate fudge cake mix

1 pkg (3.9 oz) chocolate instant pudding mix

1 cup sour cream

1/2c water

1/2 vegetable oil

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Spray the Bundt pan with the oil spray, dust with flour, shake out excess.  Set aside.

2.  In a large mixing bowl, place the cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, water, oil, and eggs.  BLend on low for 1 minute.  Stop and scrape the side.  Blend on medium speed for 2-3 more minutes.  The batter should look thick and well-combined.  Fold in chocolate chips.  Pour batter into prepare Bundt pan, smooth it out and put it in the oven.

3.  Bake cake until it springs back when lightly pressed with your finger and is just starting to pull away from the sides of the pan, 58-62 minutes.  Remove from oven and let it cool for 20 minutes.  Run a long, sharp knife around the edge of the cake and invert it onto a rack to cool completely, 20 minutes more.

4.  Spread with chocolate icing.

Chocolate Icing:

1 cup granulated sugar

5 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup whole milk

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1.  Place sugar, butter, and milk in a medium sized saucepan over medium-high heat.  Stir until mixture comes to a boil, 3-4 minutes  Still stirring, let the mixture boil until sugar dissolves, about 1 minute.  Remove from heat.

2.  Stir in chocolate chips and continue to stir until mixture is smooth and chocolate has melted.

3.  Spread icing over cake.

And that's all there is to it!

My boys even helped me prepare it.

Handsome Dude is showing me that he will not touch his finger into the batter.

And Little Dude . . . well, I suspect Little Dude is just flirting with me.

Yum!

Fact:  It really is not a donut.

Try it sometime!

It is tasty.

And I choose to believe that it is low fat!

Later, dudes!

Chocolate-Lined Strawberry Pie!

 

 

This week on "Show us Your Life," Kelly asks us to share some ideas for random acts of kindness. 

If you are here from Domestic Fringe . . . scroll down a bit for the recipe! :)

  

I love doing something little as a surprise for people!

Here are some ideas:

Call a Friend

Or, more accurately in my case, text a friend.

Because who wants to talk to someone who has to constantly pause the conversation to say things such as:

"Mommy's busy."

"Don't lick the dog."

"Please go potty!"

"No.  No more snacks."

"Don't take her book."

"Go potty.  Yes you have to.  You are holding yourself."

"Don't yell."

"Don't pee on the floor!"

Trust me.

I am a much better texter.

BTW-I used 2 hate txting but I lrned 2 embrace it 4 it makes life easier.

LOL

See.

I'm down with the lingo.

LOL.

Fact:  I have rejected LOL in my life and have substituted in it's stead the smiley face.

:)

I like it much better.

 

Bring someone coffee

My darling friend, Amanda, did this for me on my dreary, tragical Thursday last week.

Aaaannnnndddd . . . I heart her.

 

Offer to babysit someone's kids

Trust me.

There are a lot of moms out there who could use a break sometimes . . . particularly if her children are . . . spunky.

Attention all friend of mine in real life:

HINT, HINT

Oh, I am kidding.

Or.

Am.
I?

Write a Note

 

This is always a spectacular way to go.

And look what I found in my old Bible this week  . . .

Why, what's this dear readers?

Hmmm . . .

Well, glory-be-and-the-saints-be-praised, it looks like I once got a love note from my dapper, young Lumberjack when we were dating and should have been listening to the message on 1 Corinthians.

Yet, we were not.

We were swooning each other.

Shameful.

Look up 1 Corinthians 7.

Hmmm . . .

A whole chapter on marriage.

Perhaps we were moved.

Or flirting and not paying attention.

I will go with the latter option.

 

Bring someone a meal or dessert

 

I mean, who doesn't like pie?

As promised, here is the delightful recipe that I shamelessly stole from my friend, Mindy Lou.

 

Fun Fact:  I like to call MindyLou my "Sweet Sugar Pants."

Why?

Because I can.

 

I emailed MindyLou asking her for her recipe and she gave it to me!

Holla!

Do not be alarmed.  I asked permission from my Sweet Sugar Pants to share this recipe with all of you.

 

Dearest Taylor,
Here is the uber top-secret recipe. I just wanted to use the word uber.
Anyhew....it was WAY good, and I know you will enjoy, yum-yum!
You will love my recipe, it's very exact!!! :)

Ingredients:
Graham cracker crust
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips(ish)
2 tblsp butter(or so)
1/4 cup whipping cream(about)
1 tblsp light corn syrup(give or take a little)
8 cups strawberries(or more if ya want), stems removed
2/3 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
2 Tbls cornstarch
Now, for the directions:
Melt chocolate pieces and butter over low heat;set aside. In a heavy saucepan stir together whipping cream and corn syrup. Bring to a gentle boil. Reduce heat and cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat; gradually stir into choc mixture. Cool to room temp. Spread cooled choc mixture over the bottom and sides of the crust; set aside.
In a blender combine 1 cup of the strawberries and the water. Cover and blend till smooth. In a saucepan combine sugar and cornstarch. Stir in pureed berry mixture. Cook and stir over med heat till mixture is thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 2 minutes more. Cool for 10 minutes without stirring.
Arrange half of the remaining strawberries, stem end down, in crust. Carefully glaze thickened mixture over fruit, thoroughly covering each peice of fruit. Arrange remaining berries over first layer. Glaze these berries as first layer. Chill for at least 2 hours before serving. Enjoy!
With much love, your dearest Sweet Sugar Pants

There you have it!

Go!

Make pie!

Make one for yourself and one for your friend!

It was delicious, as well as delightful.

That's all I got.

What are some ideas you have for random acts of kindness?

I would love to hear them.

Hint.

Hint.

Banana Bread Deliciousness.

 

Mini Chocolate Swirled Banana Bread Loaves:

1)  In a large bowl, combine 2 cups of flour, 3/4 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt.

2) Scold daughter for spilling flour on herself.

Honestly, Daisy Mae.

Honestly.

3)  In a completely different and unrelated bowl, cream 1 cup sugar and 1/4c softened butter.

4)  Realize you forgot to set out butter in preparation for the creation of these delightful loaves.

It happens.

5)  Decide you have one of two options:

A)  Wait until butter softens.

B)  Microwave butter at half power for like 8 seconds . . .

get nervous and check butter at 4 seconds . . .

decide butter will survive . . .

microwave for the remaining 4 seconds.

I went with the latter option.

You may do as you see fit.

6)  Mash about 3-4 medium bananas.

I highly recommend making your child do this for you.

7)  Add mashed bananas to the sugar/butter bowl, not the flour-y bowl.

8)  Add 2 eggs and 1/3c of lowfat plain yogurt or sour cream.

Truly, the choice is yours.

9)  Beat all that stuff, with the exception of the flour-y mixture, of course, until well-combined.

10)  Gradually add the flour-y mixture into the butter-y mixture.

Gradual is key.

Please be advised to follow that simple instruction, lest something like this happens:

Consider yourselves warned.

10)  Decide you had no business whatsoever in scolding your daughter for making a flour mess.

Clearly, she comes by it honestly.

11)  Mix together until just moistened.

Don't overmix!

Trust me!

I, myself, have overmixed.

The results are less than satisfactory.

I don't know, nor do I understand the science behind it, but clearly there is a reason you may not overmix.

100 (meaningless) points to anyone who can explain to me why.

12)  In a third, smaller, and completely different bowl, microwave 1/2c of chocolate chips.

Don't forget to sneak a few chocolate chips to eat right now.

13)  Microwave for about 1 minute and stir until smooth.  Let cool a bit.

14)  Add 1cup of batter to the melted chocolate.  Stir.

Now, here is where things get fun!

Please.

Try and contain your excitement.

15)  Alternatively spoon plain batter in . . .

Then add some chocolate batter . . .

And top it off with plain batter.

16)  Take a knife, and swirl batter to create a marbled look.

Like so:

Now, how 'bout them apples?

Everything I learned about swirling batters, I learned from my brief stint working in the hospital kitchen.

Me, along with my hairnet, were great swirlers back in the day.

Oh!

Did you not know I used to regularly wear hairnets?

Well, I did.

And, I ain't gonna lie . . . I rocked 'em.

17)  Bake at 350 degrees for about 40-45 minutes.

18)  Clean up!

19)  Catch daughter hiding in laundry room with chocolate chips bowl.

Speaking of aforementioned daughter, look at this face she is making:

Her facial expression reminds me of someone . . .

Name that former female Office character.

I know you can do it.

Don't let me down.

21)  Pull loaves out of oven when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Or, when they are just about to burn because you are terrible at time management and had to leave them baking in the oven *gasp!* while you drove to pick up another child from school.

Aren't they cute, albeit slightly over-baked, little loaves of banana goodness?

You may ask,

"But, Taylor, do they taste good?"

 

Why, yes, in fact, they do!

So, anyways, if you don't have a fancy mini-loaf pan, I would recommend one. 

You can use any sort of banana bread recipe, or other type of quick bread in it and you can have these cute little loaves.

They make great little gifts.

They are also great for packing lunches and freeze well, too.

Here is the recipe in a much shorter, and more reasonable format:

Chocolate Swirled Banana Bread

2 c. flour

¾ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 c. sugar

¼ c. butter, softened

1 ½ c. mashed ripe bananas (about 3-4 medium bananas)

2 eggs

1/3 c. plain lowfat yogurt or sour cream

½ c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cups and level. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Cream sugar and butter. Add bananas, eggs, and yogurt, beating until just blended. Add flour mixture. Beat on low until just moistened. Microwave chocolate chips in a medium bowl for 1 minute. Stir until smooth. Cool slightly. Add 1 c. batter to chocolate, stirring until well-combined. Spoon chocolate batter alternately with plain batter (so you have stripes of plain and chocolate batter) in an 8 ½” x 4 ½” *loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Swirl batters with a knife.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes (give or take a little; I'd probably set your timer for 1 hour and 10 minutes to be safe) or until a knife comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan and then remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

*Or pour into mini-loaf pan and bake for about 40-45 minutes, or until done.

***

Random Topic Quick Change!

Many of you know of my trials with Handsome Dude and his glasses.

You may ask,

"Why, pray tell, must Handsome Dude wear glasses?"

Well, dear readers:

That is why Handsome Dude needs glasses.

Have a lovely day!

 

Food.

What did I make the night that the "scintillating" (as Lani and Rebecca said) dinner conversation occurred?

First of all . . . scintillating?

I had to look up that one, you smarty-pantsies.

The Lumberjack, in all his handsomeness, BBQ some steaks.

Fact:  The Lumberjack's Wife does not ever light a gas BBQ on her own.

Throwing a lit match into an open flame goes against everything I believe in.

Remember how we were having company the other night?

You know, the same day as the popcorn packaging fiasco?

Well, for that night, I made:

Lil' Cheddar Meatloves (Seriously.  Best Meatloaf ever.)

Smashed Potatoes and Cooked Carrots

Creamed Corn (This is what Little Dude and Sweet Pea raved over)

Biscuits

And, of course, a green salad.

I am doing Weight Watchers, remember?

Anyways, we had leftovers of the smashed potatoes, carrots, and creamed corn.

So, I just magically reheated all those leftovers to accompany The Lumberjack's dangerous BBQ steaks.

I'm awesome like that.

And that, my friends, was the dinner I made on that scintillating night.

None of those recipes are exactly . . . low fat.

I definitely could use more family-friendly recipes that are low in fat.

Do you have one you would like to share?

Please do.

Because Weight Watchers only works if you actually follow it.

Stupid rules.

Leave a comment with a healthy and low fat snack idea or recipe.

If you have one already written in a blog post, just put the link in the comments.

If you get it off the internet somehow, leave a link to the recipe.

Or, if you truly care and have time, you could just type the recipe out the painfully slow way in the comments.

And you can have the satisfaction that I whole-heartedly appreciated it.

And bonus points if you know the WW points value!

I don't have time to figure that stuff out on my own.

I'm lazy like that.

If you don't have a recipe, I don't want you to feel left out.

Recipe-less peeps can try to come up with a tricky word, like scintillating.

Happy Thursday!

Terror.

It has been too long.

 Uncle Alex has been away for too long.

My kids were not used to all the roaring and tickling and roaring and teasing and roaring and chasing.

So instead of a fun, silly uncle . . . he is now a huge, scary monster.

It's a shame, really.

Look at what was ironically on the computer screen at the time.

Very interesting . . .

Yes.

It does take guts to be a part of this family.

Handsome Dude does not yet have the required guts.

Poor Handsome Dude.

Poor Daisy Mae.

Although, I think she was secretly having fun.

Dear Daisy Mae,

Why are you wearing a dress with jeans?

Love,

Mom.

Poor Sweet Pea.

Speaking of Sweet Pea . . . look at what she made with her new sewing machine:

Pajamas for her doll.

She made them with help from Grandma, of course.

For I know not how to even sew buttons on.

We had a lovely evening.

It was nice to see Alex again.

And once the kids' heart rates returned to normal and they recognized their fun uncle, they were happy to see him, too.

Now this is typical of family events.

Random weapons.

100 (meaningless) points to anyone who can name the weapon.

Personally, I have no idea, so I will have to take this one to the Lumberjack later on.

I am going with a light saber.

Or some sort of sword?

"Taylor.  Stop.  Are you going to put this in your blog?"

Well . . . Lumberjack . . . you kind of set yourself up when you are sitting next to a picture of John Wayne and holding what appears to be a light saber at a family gathering.

I mean, really.

What else can I do?

It is my duty to share the insanity.

"Blog?  What's a blog?  Oh, yeah.  Your blog.  I don't read it.  I don't have time for that stuff."

Good.

Then I can talk about you all the more, silly father-in-law.

And with that, I will conclude this family gathering recap.

Happy Sunday everyone!

P.S.-Everyone liked the Potatoes

P.P.S-Everyone like the Carrots.

Thanks, Dad!

I guess you weren't trying to sabotage me after all.

 

Carrots and Potaters

****I am linking up at Hot Diggity Blog Diggity***

My super-cool roarin' brother-in-law, Alex, has arrived in these here parts and tonight we will be celebrating Christmas with him.

What can I say about Alex?

Hmmm . . . .

He likes to make things with his chainsaw.

He likes to hit small children with water balloons.

He likes to suffocate his entire family by collapsing parachutes.

And he is constantly roaring.

Any event with Alex is certainly going to be entertaining.

So, in a little bit, the Lumberjack and I will be loading up our lumberjacklings and heading out for  food, fun, and fellowship.

I am in charge of bringing a potato product and a vegetable product.

And since I cannot make delicious food on my own, I called up my patriarch so I could steal some of his recipes.

And now I am sharing them with you.

I hope my dad doesn't mind.

Dad?

Do you care?

Speak now or forever hold your peace.

First up:  Smashed Potatoes.

Start with some red potatoes.

If you have the baby ones, you don't need to cut.

But if you have the bigger ones, you need to cut them in half.

No peeling necessary.

Can I get an "Amen?"

Use however many potatoes you think you might need.

For tonight's purposes, I am using 5 pounds.

Boil aforementioned potatoes until they are tender.

But not as tender and soft as you would boil them when you are going to mash them.

One thing about my dad is that he is not exact, nor does he use measurements.

I think he does this on purpose so that no one can ever re-create the delicious delicacies that he prepares.

Whatever, Dad.

Whatever.

While you are waiting, fry some bacon.

I used an entire 12 oz box.

Raw bacon.

Gross.

Want to know something even grosser?

The Lumberjack fries bacon.

Then he removes the bacon from the pan.

This results in a lot of bacon grease in a frying pan.

He then adds eggs and scrambles eggs right in all that bacon grease.

I refuse to eat them.

For it is just wrong.

Hey.

Guess what.

Remember how I cleaned my refrigerator yesterday instead of taking a nap?

Look at it now:

Boy.

It's a good thing I did that.

Ok.

Focus.

When the potatoes are done, drain them, and then bring them back to the warm pot.

Mash them slightly with a fork or a potato masher.

Don't over do it.

Add butter, warm milk, cheddar cheese, cooked bacon, and some sour cream.

Or whatever else you deem necessary.

Some people might like to add chives.

Really.

You have the power.

I over mashed.

This is my life.

Do not, I repeat, do not tell the Lumberjack that there is sour cream in these potatoes.

He will not, I repeat, will not even try them.

Picky-pants.

And since I am serving these later, I will be adding them to my crock pot and hoping that they somewhat resemble the delicious potatoes my dad makes.

And now, it is time for the vegetable.

I chose carrots.

I also chose to poach another recipe from my dad.

Are you ready?

Peel some carrots.

I loathe peeling any vegetable products.

For tonight's purposes, I used 5 pounds.

It was a lot of loathing.

Slice carrots.

Add them to a pot of boiling water.

Like so.

Cook them until they are fork tender.

Or whatever.

Drain.

Put them back into the warm pot.

Here comes the healthy part:

Add some butter and brown sugar.

Look at me!

I have two crockpots!

Aren't I something else?

Well, there you have it.

Two stolen recipes from my Goober 2 song IPod Dad.

If these recipes turn out just nasty-wrong, blame it on him.

If these recipes turn out delicious, you can thank me.

Okie-dokie!

I am off to celebrate Christmas with Big-A.

I am sure I will have plenty of material for tomorrow's post.

Toodles!