Sho 'Nuf Better Than Texas Sheet Cake!

This is the cake made by Suzanna and shared at the office for my birthday - I told you I have ulterior motives for making sure people know how much I like chocolate! After I took the first bite I asked everybody to give back their slices because I didn't want to share. Any of it. It is also the cake I mentioned that ultimately led me to begin a blog dedicated to chocolate. I hope you get the idea that this is a really, really good cake.

Suzanna found the recipe in a cookbook from Fredericksburg, Texas, and she didn't even charge to share it with me! It calls for brewed coffee, but for non-coffee drinkers you can use Sanka or Choffee

Collins Chocolate Cake
from the Peach Tree Tea Room in Fredericksburg , Texas

4 ounces unsweetened baking
chocolate
1 cup butter
1 cup brewed coffee
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour

1. Combine chocolate, butter, coffee and sugar in bowl. Melt together and mix.
2. In 2-cup container, place buttermilk, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla and soda. Mix well and stir quickly into chocolate mixture.
3. Stir in flour, blending well. Pour into 9x13-inch pan (or if you want to be fancy, 2 8-inch round pans), greased and floured. Bake for 30 minutes in 350 degree pre-heated oven or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Frosting:
½ cup butter, softened
¾ cup cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ cup brewed coffee

1. Cream butter; add cocoa, blending well with food processor.
2. Add powdered sugar and vanilla.
3. Add coffee, a little at a time, until of spreading consistency. Add
more coffee, a few drops at a time if frosting is too thick.

The author of this recipe used to send this cake to her boys for their birthdays when they were in college.

How Did I Miss This?!?

Did you know today is National Chocolate Day? I just found out but it's too late to celebrate properly. The only chocolate I've had today was a handful of peanut M&M's, and I know I could have done better than that!
I spent the evening at our ward Halloween party where there wasn't a brownie or chocolate cupcake in sight, and I saw no evidence of any chocolate candy. I was patting myself on the back for getting all the way through the evening eating only a couple of (teeny, tiny) sugar cookies.
But no worries, I'll make up for my ignorance tomorrow in a big way, and will never allow it to happen again.

Should I splurge on Belgian chocolates...




...edible chocolate shoes...

...or a perfect chocolate cheesecake?!?

Oh, the possibilities!

Amazing Grace

The first time I visited little Grandma Davis with our newborn son she taught me her methods for producing the best milk possible for his nourishment:

Step 1 ~ Sit in a comfortable chair in a quiet place. Grandma took me into her tiny sitting room, which could be divided from her living room with a curtain (and which she used for her bedroom at night) and had me sit in her big, soft rocking chair.

Step 2 ~ Listen to quiet, soothing, beautiful music. Grandma put on her favorite album of religious music. I think it was the first time I really listened to “Amazing Grace”. Another favorite of hers that was on the album was “How Great Thou Art", which at that time was not in the LDS hymnbook. (I remember she said she didn’t understand why it wasn’t, and it made me really happy when it did show up in the latest edition.)

Step 3 ~ Drink something, preferably milk. Grandma told me that to make milk I needed to drink lots of it, and she served me a delicious homemade chocolate shake in a tall glass. She encouraged me to relax and take my time, and then she left me alone to nurse my baby boy.


Soren was several months old by this time, and I hadn't had any problems with nursing, so at first I thought it was just sweet that she would take such an interest in us. And then I started to really like the idea of just enjoying nursing him in such a relaxed and soothing atmosphere. I decided I could really get used to this, especially having someone make me a chocolate shake everytime I fed him (which at that time was still about every 2 hours!). I guess I became very comfortable because when I reached to put the drink back on the stereo it slipped from my hand and tipped over, spilling most of the contents down onto the LP. I will never know if I ruined the album, let alone the stereo - Grandma was the kind of person who would never let you know and wouldn't want you to worry about it. Of course, she wouldn't even let me clean it up - she just made me another shake and told me to keep feeding the baby!

I always have and always will think of my little Grandma Davis as a woman full of amazing grace.

Kisses Sweeter Than Honey

So, maybe I need to take a break from eating chocolate ~ hurray for Stinky D's Chocolate Lip Whip ~ which smells divine! You can find more amazing things that Denise (aka Stinky D, YW camp nickname!) whips up in her kitchen at http://stinkyds.com/. She will even make YOUR favorite flavor of lip whip and lotion - and let you name it - as she did for Tanja & Brad's wedding favors in a tangerine flavor!

Today's Brownie Points go to:
• Ayrel & Ben for making sure I had my very own bag of dark chocolate M&Ms!
• Dee & Rhen for providing minature Hershey's chocolate bars on the drive home from the temple AND making a Mickey D's stop for hot fudge sundaes!
• Mom for the unopened bag of Harry & David truffles that she had tucked away for us to find!

My New Partner in Crime

One of the things I love about Kris is that he is always willing to try new things - especially when it comes to food. Today we had Pizza Hut's Hershey's Chocolate Dunkers for the first time - YUM!

We will keep you posted on future successes in our continuous quest for excellent chocolate experiences.

To Market, To Market

....to buy these wonderful, rich cookies! I bought them to share, but it ended up that my husband only ate two and my daughter one. Whatever could have happened to the rest of them? I hope you have a World Market close enough to check them out for yourself.

Brownie Points

As a rule I believe that something made from scratch will always be better than something made with a mix, but I have not had much success when it comes to brownies. Even when I've tried recipes like "Mother's Perfect-Absolutely-Every-Single-Time Brownies" and "To-Die-For-There-Is-Something-Wrong-With-Your-Head-If-You-Can't-Get-These-Right Brownies", the results have been disappointing. But after eating a friend's brownies and realizing that they were exactly what I love about brownies - gooey but not too gooey and just the right crispiness on top - and they were perfect every time, I asked if she would share her recipe. She put me off the first time but when I asked again she told me her secret, and now it's my secret, and I'm sharing: Hurray for Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate Brownie Mix! If you want to dress them up a little bit just sprinkle powdered sugar on top; if you really want to get fancy spread some chocolate chips on them when they come out of the oven and then spread like frosting after they've had a few minutes to melt. (Thanks Debbie D. ~ hope you won't hold this against me!)

I've decided to award Brownie Points when someone or something unexpected happens that involves chocolate!

Today's Brownie Points go to:

• Danica for the absolutely yummy chocolate cake she made for her sister's surprise birthday brunch ~
• Ron for bringing mi esposo TWO packages of alfajors from Argentina, and mi esposo for sharing ~
• Irma for giving me a huge candy bar just because I did a simple, menial task for her ~
• Nutella, which I try not to have in my house because I will eat the entire jar with a spoon in less than a week, but which I had to buy because it was cheaper to buy 2, and I had to give one to a friend who had never heard of it before ~
• My $5 roses that looked so beautiful today, and everyone knows that chocolate and roses are perfect together even if you buy yourself the chocolate and the roses!

Sampling of today's chocolate collection

Argentine Alfajor (extra Brownie Points for the beautiful packaging!)

A thing of beauty is a joy forever!