Simple Chocolate Birthday Cake

From piles of leaves to birthday cake testing to Thanksgiving recipes dotting the kitchen counter, a few things that have been happening in our world ..

lately

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Cooking – Soup; lots and lots of soup.  It seems lately there are so many people we know and love, who we've either taken a meal to or tucked one away in the freezer for.  A neighbor home from Europe with a terrible case of viral pneumonia.  Extended family fighting cancer.  Something for the kids; a meal from mom to warm up on a chilly winter's night.

Sipping – Lots of Hot Apple Cider

Weekly Lesson in Humility – “Grandma, I was a ghost for Halloween!”

“Really?  I wish I was there“

“You would've been scared Grandma; you're not as brave as Pappa and me”   #twoagainstone

Guilty Pleasures – Cooking magazines in November

Asking and Answering – “What are you doing for the holidays?”

Looking Forward To – My brother and sister-in-law will be home this year (the first Thanksgiving in, I can't remember how long, that my parents won't be traveling to Austin).  We'll be cooking, playing cards, playing pool, and catching up

Reminded – This week of how just how hard your twenties can be.  When you're still figuring yourself out, starting a career, learning the art of saying yes, and also saying no.  To the sweet soul for whom we chatted, I wish I'd have thought of it at the moment, but some food for thought from Brene Brown.

“What would you say to your twenty-five-year-old self?”

“All the pleasing and proving and perfecting what you're doing is getting in the way of what you're supposed to be doing.  You will never live the life you want to live without disappointing other people.  You'll need to choose now.

Your thirties are notoriously difficult of this.  You think ‘I can be me and be authentic and make everyone around me happy.'

And this is the gift of mid-life.  The gift of mid-life is ‘something's gotta go, and for the first time in your life you're like, and it ain't gonna be me' ”     ~ Brene Brown via Chase Jarvis Live

Milestones Reached –  The puppies are finally potty trained(!)  Retired to the basement are the baby gates and kennels.

Realizing – Even a king size bed isn't big enough for two people, three dogs, and a couple of kitty cats

Admitting – How truly tough the past few months have been.  Two puppies proved a far greater challenge than we'd ever dreamed.

Forgotten – The season when the kids were little.  How dark the nights could be; how long they seemed to stretch.  How heavy a baby's head feels on your arm during a 3 am feeding (or how exhausting moonlight trips to the backyard with a playful puppy can be).  I'd forgotten until I'd doze off, blink, then hear a whimper and mobilize for the routine all over again.

The night seemed endless, until at 5:30 am when the sun began to rise.  How comforting was the light, the realization that the day has begun, and you're no longer the only one

Pursuing – Therapy Dog Certification .. for both Harry and Sally.  We've had several people tell us they would be great candidates and have started along the training path.

Excited For – My grandson's first birthday this weekend

I'm in charge of the cake, so this week I've been experimenting.

It's occasions like this that are fun to experiment with new recipes.  For his mom's baby shower, I brought a masterpiece, the most incredible chocolate beet cake you've ever laid eyes on.  Everyone tried it, told me it tasted expensive, and moved on.

Lessons learned

This recipe is far more traditional.  It's not a multi-layered, out-of-the-ordinary ingredient, or fancy chocolate cake.  Instead, it's simple and relatively unassuming.  An everyday cake that you might not make every day.

It's filled with chocolate, moist, easy to make, and delicious to eat.  It doesn't have sugar in the cake or frosting, and whole wheat pastry flour stands in for more traditional all-purpose.  A generous slashing of whipped chocolate cream frosting to top it off

A note about the cake:  You'll want to refrigerate any leftovers.  As the cake chills, the texture will become truffle-like.  At room temp, it will have a more crumb-like texture.  Similarly, the frosting will set as it chills but stays billowy and light at room temp

Enjoy!

xoxo

~ Adapted from 101 Cookbooks