Craziness and Extra Devilish Chocolate Cake

Sometimes life is just plain annoying. In the same fabulous week, both my camera and my laptop died. For 17 l-o-n-g days, the computer repair people had my connection to Pinterest, my favorite blogs, online shopping, etsy, etc. held hostage. It was brutal. (Yes, I may have a wee bit of an Internet addiction.)

Fortunately, my Kindle arrived around day 8, so I wasn’t completely isolated from the electronic world.  And not to veer too wildly off topic, but I just love my Kindle. As an avid bibliophile and English lit major, I was convinced nothing could replace the joy of curling up with a real book and turning paper pages. Then I saw one of the books I recently oversaw and edited (during my day job at a publishing company) on an iPad. It just took a few moments and I was hooked.

Okay, I could gush all day, but back to the cake. Thanks to the Kindle, I was able to do a little research on the musical my niece performed in last weekend. The show is loaded with elaborate dance numbers and many of my favorite Gershwin songs, so my cake thoughts immediately turned to art deco. Most of the action, however, takes place in the Midwest. This is how I blended the two themes.

I played around with the basic Pilsbury devil’s food cake recipe. I added a hint of coffee to bring out the chocolate flavor and filled each split layer with raspberry jam.

Extra Devilish Chocolate Cake (adapted from Pilsbury Kitchen’s Cookbook)

1 ½ c flour

1 ¼ c flour

½ c dark chocolate cocoa

1 ¼ t baking soda

1 c buttermilk

⅔ c oil

1 T instant coffee

1 t vanilla

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350° F and grease two 8-inch round cake pans.

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients at a low speed until combined. At medium speed, mix for 3 minutes.

Pour batter into prepared pans and bake 25-30 minutes or until cake bounces back from a light touch. 

Bragging time. Once again I was blown away by my niece’s talent – singing, dancing, and obviously enjoying her role as the spoiled, overbearing, and highly amusing jilted fiance. I’m proud of you, Becca/Irene!

 

Moon Cake

So, I’m halfway through Operation Four Cakes in 11 Days While Working Full Time and Traveling for Thanksgiving. My house is a disaster area. 

By that I don’t mean it’s more than a little messy, with dirty dishes in the sink and unfolded laundry on the sofa.

What I mean is that I’m seriously considering grabbing my dog and my computer and moving. Every dog-safe area is overflowing with stuff – cook books, junk mail, clothes, crafts projects, gifts, and on and on and on.

I may not be graceful (or even slightly coordinated), but I sure am an impressive stacker.  There’s only been one minor avalanche so far.  Yeah me.

Anyway . . . here’s the cake I made for my niece this weekend. As usual, she blew me away with her talent - and comedic timing.  The play was hysterical.

I cut out building shapes from black fondant and let them dry.

I used blue fondant for the night sky.

To add some depth, I painted the sky with purple and black food coloring and threw in some silver stars. 

Since the play took place in a theater, I added a curtain.

And of course, I couldn’t forget the moon.