Chocolate Stout Cake

And look at this, I’m back as promised, bearing a recipe in hand!  (In some really good news, I found another batch of pictures that was lurking…but it was a bit of a disaster, so I’m not sure if I’ll share them with you now, or if I’ll wait, try the recipe again, and share later…we’ll see how desperate I get).

It was between this cake and the chocolate zucchini cake when my mom had to decide what she wanted me to bake her for her birthday this year – while the chocolate zucchini cake won out, this is a cake that’s very tough to beat.  It may be my current favorite cake (I mean, I get to sip beer while I make it, so who’s complaining?).  It’s rich, moist, and divine.  It’s also a little bit tricky, so I’ve experimented with several different things to make it as fool-proof and easy as possible.  This is also, in no way, a one or two bowl recipe.  This recipe is a “You’d better have all of your ingredients, pay a dishwasher for the day, and put on an apron” recipe, and as much as I love it, you definitely want to be prepared before walking into this one.

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Oops…

Okay, I failed you for the first time since I returned to school.  Don’t tell me you aren’t surprised, because, well, that would hurt my feelings (okay, not really).  Unfortunately, I’m essentially all out of recipes and pictures in my backlogged stash (yes, that’s right, I’ve been holding out on you).  So, unfortunately, while I’m posting right now, this isn’t a real post.  This is a head-hanging, shamed post, accompanied by unrelated pictures (those are your consolation prize).  I’m planning to post my last backlog tomorrow, and then – on to new things!  I’d better be prepared to keep up.

Lemon Tart

Err, whoops, I promised you this back in April.  I did in fact make it at the end of April/early May, however – then I had finals.  And then I went home.  And didn’t connect my computer to the internet for several weeks.  So, in a long story short, I’ve made this.  It’s delicious.  I took photographs (I’m slightly obsessed with my lemon photographs – they’re so beautiful a color), and now I’m showing them to you.

The thing is that, as much as I’m enjoying this blogging thing (yes, I just referred to it as such), I sometimes forget that I have a responsibility to do this.  At least to myself.  And then I feel sort of uninspired, because I could be more creative, but I’m not really experienced enough to be creative with recipes – yet.  But I’m learning.  And I think that part of this is all about learning, so I keep trying.  (Also, sometimes I start taking pictures, and the food I’m cooking does not turn out well – I made a stir-fry this week, and while I took some beautiful pictures of my process, I wouldn’t share that recipe with you if you paid me.  And you’d be pretty foolish to pay me, because it wasn’t good).

Having said that, however, I can also tell you that I’m not incredibly busy at school right now.  I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop (and it has at times…but not permanently yet), and so I really have no excuse to not post something at least once a week on this blog.  I think I’m making this goal right now…so I’ll try and keep up.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

I am back at college, and I just ran out of ^ this today.  I made two loaves about a month ago, scarffed one in about a week, and froze the other, ostensibly to eat later…which turned into my mom saying: “You’ve got a loaf of zucchini bread and a loaf of banana bread in the freezer.  Do you want to take them to Washington with you?” and me vigorously nodding my head, because really, I sometimes need a serious pick-me-up (several times a day) during the week.  Especially when you’re just getting used to a new kitchen, and remembering what it’s like to cook for yourself (and three others!) every single day.  Urgh…I am repeating a mantra to myself: “I love cooking, I love cooking, I love doing so many dishes cooking…”  (Please note that the strike-outs in this post are not in any way indicative of my mood at the moment).

Anyway, because you are all here because you actually want to know about banana bread: this bread is truly delicious.  I really make no changes to the recipe, because how do you alter something that you said was your favorite recipe when you were three years old (and in preschool)?  It’s certainly malleable – if you don’t want chocolate chips in your banana bread (really?) you can absolutely take them out.  If you want to add nuts (really?!) you can add nuts.  The basic recipe itself, however, is pretty bomb proof.  It can be made into muffins (the original recipe is made for muffins) or bread, as I’ve been doing the past couple of times I’ve made it.  Best of all, if you have some questionable bananas hanging out in your kitchen, this recipe will by all means fix that problem before the fruit flies come out.  And it makes an awesome snack/dessert/etc.