chocolate madness

I've been craving for chocolates. I usually don't really fancy chocolate that much... once in a while i'll have some here & there but never this crazy. Rocky road has been my favorite ice cream flavor lately (i've always loved plain vanilla ice cream). Anyway, i attempted to bake a chocolate cake couple weeks ago and it was a success! With the help of John & my little hand mixer, I baked Chocolate Torte from a recipe book that my mil gave me. I love to eat cake, unfortunately not the cake from the store here. They are generally too sweet to my taste. I like the "chinese" cake where the cakes are "spongier" and less sugary. Anyway, I .. okay, "we" baked our chocolate torte and it tasted so GOOD. I am not boasting (i don't usually boast, i am humble ^^). It looked ugly... like really nasty but it tasted yummy and that's what i care about. Being a newbie in the baking industry, i don't have many baking gadgets yet. In fact I don't even own the ever so popular kitchenaid stand mixer, where i heard each household must own one. I know... i need to get one of those... i'm looking into it. i was doing fine with the little hand mixer i have until we borrowed the stand mixer from my mil. According to John, it is definitely a must have. I know why he said that, so he doesn't get dragged to the kitchen by me each time i bake. :) He has been helping me with all the baking i've done just cause it is much faster with his help. He is responsible for the mixing process, while i pour stuff in the bowl. So of course with the stand mixer, we can eliminate that hand labor.

So, the cake that i baked. It was so good, that i decided to bake the same cake for easter weekend at Debbie's house. Sure enough, when i was just ready to show off my baking talent to the family, the second cake failed.... miserably! First of all, i should have baked it the night before but instead i chose to bake it the same morning. I slept in that morning and with only 2 hours and less to spare, the cake turned out horribly. I didn't leave enough time for the cake to cool off before i put the frosting on (if i am a baker, i would known what a horrible disaster this would cause). About 1/2 way on the drive to the house, the frosting melted and the cake became lopsided. When we opened the cake box, with everyone surrounding it, .... "ta-da!". Silent. I quickly told john to put the cake in the fridge. so embarrassing.... of course, to not hurt my feelings, during dessert time, everyone said it was good. O.O That's why i don't like to offer my food to "public". I am afraid that it doesn't taste good or i could possible poison somebody.

The following week, i baked chocolate cupcakes. They looked pretty, but tasted alright. I still prefer the cake. I am planning on making chocolate chip cookies this weekend. See, i told ya... i am diagnosed with chocolate madness!


i told you it was ugly. that's my chocolate torte in case you can't figure out what that is. :> I just kind of dumped the frosting on it. Using a spoon to make "swirls". remember? i don't have many gadgets to work with. that's the best i can do... pretty pathetic looking i know. I kept asking John why the cake looked totally different from the picture on the recipe book!

yes... i have some layer thing going on in there. looking professional there huh?

the cupcakes before the "accessories"

I decided to invest in the colorful sprinkles to dress them up. What a difference it makes.