I can’t believe I even typed the heading of this post!  But yes, we had no pizza last night 🙁

I started out my day with the best grapefruit!  Fresh from my parents-in-law’s backyard!  And ruby red is my all time favorite.  I sometimes put honey on the top and put it under the broiler – when I asked my MIL if she had ever had it like that, she said her grandmother made it like that all the time! 😀

Look how juicy!!

On the side I had spinach/potato/egg white hash with an English muffin:

Before lunch I had the saddest workout of my life.  My co-worker I usually work out with was out of the office.  I couldn’t get motivated at all, so I did a lackluster 4.0 jog for 30 minutes.  Some days its just not there!  But maybe I cut it short because I wanted to eat this!

There is a baked potato underneath there – with 1 cup of my Cincinnati Chili with 1 ounce cheddar cheese – lots of splashes of Tabasco and an apple on the side.

I did have low blood sugar in the afternoon – not too bad – this did the trick to hold me over until dinner:

Can I tell you excited I was to leave work at 5:00 and it was still somewhat light outside??  Come on summer!!

We decided on buffalo wings and since the fryer was out, I cut up a couple potatoes for fries.  After downloading the pictures, I realized that this meal was a bit light on the vegetables!!

I put my food in Calorie Count, and even with the wings, my day gave me a B+!

Yesterday was my neighbors birthday!  Her husband emailed me the day before asking for restaurant ideas, and I asked if I could bake her a cake.   Now regular readers know I don’t bake that often, but when I told Tony that I was making a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, he said “I am pretty sure you need to make two cakes – one for us to try to make sure its worthy of the neighbors!”  It’s all about quality control, right?

So I went to my trusty Cooks Illustrated and found an easy chocolate cake.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (7 1/2 ounces)
1 cup sugar (7 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder (2 ounces)
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate , chopped fine (see note)
1 cup fresh black coffee, hot
2/3 cup mayonnaise
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Confectioners’ sugar (for serving; optional)

Instructions

  1. 1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray 8-inch-square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
  2. 2. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in large bowl. In separate bowl, combine cocoa and chocolate; pour hot coffee over cocoa mixture and whisk until smooth; let cool slightly. Whisk in mayonnaise, egg, and vanilla. Stir mayonnaise mixture into flour mixture until combined.
  3. 3. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake until wooden skewer inserted into center of cake comes out with few crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes.
  4. 4. Let cake cool in pan on wire rack, 1 to 2 hours. Dust with confectioners’ sugar, cut into squares, and serve straight from the pan; or turn cake out onto serving platter and dust with confectioners’ sugar.

I used this 60% cocoa baking bar:

Baked exactly 30 minutes - it called for an 8x8 pan, which I don't have, so I used a 9 inch cake pan

Then I found this frosting recipe, also Cook’s Illustrated – I love the hot coffee in it!

Ingredients

4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick), cut into 4 pieces
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate , chopped
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon instant coffee granules
3/4 cup cocoa
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
7 tablespoons skim milk

Instructions

  1. 1. Melt butter and chocolate over double boiler, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, stir in salt and coffee granules, and transfer to bowl of standing mixer. Let cool slightly.
  2. 2. In medium bowl, whisk together cocoa powder and sugar. With standing mixer on lowest speed, gradually add to melted chocolate-butter mixture. Add milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until sugar is well moistened and frosting is no longer stiff, stopping once to scrape down bowl. Increase speed to medium-high; beat until creamy, stopping once to scrape down bowl, about 1 minute.
the hot coffee melted the chocolate

Hannah declared it the best frosting she’s ever had!

So while I was striving for a Portillo’s chocolate cake (which is THE BEST chocolate cake I’ve ever had) while this was a GREAT cake, it’s still about two notches below that cake – I am sure Tony won’t mind me going back to the drawing board to try again! 😀

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY!

Okay, this post is long enough, but I have to say thank you for Christina for giving me a blog award – I’ll post it tomorrow! 😀

And don’t forget – one more day to submit your Tofu BSI recipes! 😀

Tony and I are planning on going to a chili cook off – only $10 per person – we just have to be careful of the onion factor!