Wednesday, February 23, 2011

So, it's still winter then?

birthday cake!

Adam's birthday was Monday, so there was the baking of the chocolate cake. I went with the same cake as last year, what with that being the only chocolate cake I've ever made that turned out yummy. It turned out yummy for the second year in a row, so I think I'm going to go ahead and call that my go-to chocolate cake. I did switch it up on the icing front, this time going with the recipe on the back of the Nestle cocoa box (also here). It was, again, okay but rather too sweet for my taste. I'd like something more chocolatey, less sweet, and still really easy. Any recommendations?

birthday cake!

Most of what should be my sewing time has been devoted to sitting on the couch, either watching DVDs and feeling really freakin' pregnant or planning the garden for this spring. I'd like to pretend it's been weighted in favor of the latter, but, well, it hasn't. We are really excited about the upcoming gardening, though! I worked in the family garden as a kid, planted a couple of containers with lettuce and tomatoes when we lived in the apartment, and have been studying up over the winter, but I feel like we're pretty much flying by the seat of our pants here. But it will be fun, and we'll learn some things, and if we get a few tomatoes out of the experiment I'll consider it a rousing success. Now if only it would warm up! I don't have the patience for our long-lasting winters. I'm ready to get gardening!

2 comments:

annette said...

A belated Happy Birthday to Adam!

You could try a Sour Cream Ganache frosting which is very easy and unusual (not overly sweet with an interesting chocolatey tang), the recipe is from the Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. There is a posted recipe for it here at allrecipes.com:

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/sour-cream-ganache/Detail.aspx

another recipe to try is a Light Whipped Chocolate Ganache (also not overly sweet, and very easy to make). This recipe at allrecipes.com has the correct proportions, I believe it should be easy to whip with an electric beater after it has cooled down.

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/chocolate-ganache/Detail.aspx

Sarah said...

Thanks for the recommendations, Annette! Those definitely look like they have potential!