Flourless zucchini brownies

I have not made flourless brownies with a secret ingredient in them since the great U2 incident of September 2009. Loved the show, hated the traffic. Ate almost the entire pan of brownies with a friend while waiting to get out of the parking lot. I liked them, but the thought of them still stresses me out. I may still have PTSD from that four hour ride (that shouldn't have taken longer than 50 minutes), but I digress. It is time for a new "secret ingredient" brownie.

I saw this recipe posted on a friend's facebook page this past week. I figured, why not-we have insane amounts of zucchini from our CSA haul last week, and I had just about every other ingredient in the house just waiting to be used. Plus-and this is a bonus-it looked pretty easy. Aside from grating the zucchini, of course, and even that wasn't all that bad. *Almost* a one bowl dish (I used a grater and a plate to hold the zucchini, so I can't really call it a one bowl brownie recipe. Technically.). I was in a baking mood this weekend and wanted to try something new.

As I made these, Adam came downstairs, lured by the smells coming from the oven. Unfortunately (well, fortunately for me), once he discovered that it was chocolate baking, he didn't feel the need to taste test. See, the good thing for me is that Adam doesn't care much for chocolate, so I get to eat all of it in the house. The bad thing for me is that Adam doesn't care much for chocolate, so I have to eat all of it in the house. Normally I wouldn't complain, but I can't justify eating a whole pan of brownies by myself. So I did the next best thing, and I brought them to work.

I'll admit that I was a little bit embarrassed when mention of the brownies made it into today's staff meeting (but welcome to you guys if you're reading this!). I was excited that they were such a hit, though. I loved them too-soft, chocolate-y, a little nutty hint (kind of like a chocolate peanut butter). It uses my new favorite, almond butter, and the only bad thing about that is that I'm now out of it and have to head back to Trader Joe's for more (I enjoy my almond butter and raspberry jam sandwiches on Fridays, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.). These brownies were sweet, but not sickly sweet. Soft and gooey, but not so gooey that they couldn't be eaten without falling apart (unless you ate two straight out of the oven like I did). You can hardly tell that there's zucchini in it, and these brownies work for those who want to eat better but want to pretend they're cheating. They're gluten-free, even (if that's your thing. If it's not, you really don't miss it here anyway). How could you go wrong?

I'll tell you how. When the pan is empty.


 Flourless Zucchini Brownies (recipe obtained from delightedmomma.com)

1 c. almond butter (I love Trader Joe's raw almond butter, and they're not as expensive as some other brands. Sometimes you can luck out at Market Basket too)
1.5 c. shredded zucchini (about 1-2 zucchini)
1/3 c. honey
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 12 oz. bag of dark chocolate chips (the original recipe calls for just one cup. I like my brownies extra chocolate-y!)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Place all ingredients into a medium bowl and mix well. Line your 8x8 baking pan with foil or parchment paper, then put baking spray over it to prevent sticking. Pour batter into pan and make sure it is evenly spread out. Bake brownies for about 40 minutes (some ovens might need about five minutes more or less). When a knife inserted into the center comes back clean, they're ready!

Nutella Stuffed Brown Butter Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

Like the majority of the northeast, we were homebound yesterday in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Though we were very largely spared, it was a pretty decent storm with a ton of wind and rain. Luckily, unlike some people like some of my coworkers and my sister, our power never went out (even though I was discouraged from saying so out loud yesterday for fear that we would be jinxed) so even though we had plenty of bottled water, canned goods, and snacks at the ready, I decided to cook and bake instead. And I ate the snacks alongside it and replaced the bottled water with wine. You know, no big whoop.

I saw this recipe weeks ago and was ever so ready to make it. The problem lay in that I knew it had a bunch of steps and every time I went to go make them, I'd get distracted. Yesterday, I was ready. I wasn't going anywhere all day and figured I might as well make good use of both my time and my electricity. I really thought this would take awhile to do-but in reality it was maybe a half hour of prep time with a lot of time in the fridge to set. And the end result? Oh, that end result. A gooey, chocolate-y warm cookie. Dare I say these were better than my regular chocolate chip cookies? The ones that are the size of dinner plates? Yes.

This cookie has three different kinds of chocolate chips in it. Three. It has nutella stuffed in the middle of it. Nutella, people. Do you see where this is going? Eat it upon removing from the oven. Pure. Bliss. This is the kind of thing you'll want to have on Halloween because you want something better than the Peanut Butter Cups you're handing out (though I'm not totally sure on that. Let's call it a draw. But you see where I'm going.). Even better, make the dough, roll it out, then freeze it. You can make the cookies one or two or six at a time and not worry about them getting stale. Because, you know, you'll have inhaled them in an hour.

Get to work, people. These cookies won't stuff themselves, and you need some dessert tonight. Ready, GO!

Nutella Stuffed Brown Butter Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe obtained from Ambitious Kitchen)

Ingredients
2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 sticks (1 C) unsalted butter
1 1/4 c. brown sugar, packed
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 large egg and 1 egg yolk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. plain greek yogurt
3/4 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 c. milk chocolate chips
1/2 c. dark chocolate chips
1 jar of Nutella, chilled
Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Mix together the dry ingredients into a bowl and set aside. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Whisk the butter frequently and make sure to watch as it cooks. The butter will change from foamy to a darker, tan color, and then it will take on a nutty aroma. Make sure you take the butter off the burner immediately at this time-it can burn very quickly past this point. Set the butter aside to cool slightly.

Mix the butter and sugars together with an electric mixer. In the meantime, combine the egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt in a separate bowl and whisk together until blended. Add the egg/yogurt mixture to the butter/sugar mixer and make sure they are fully combined. Add the dry ingredients slowly and beat on low-speed just until combined. Gently fold in all of the chocolate chips with a spatula.

Let the dough rest and come together for two hours in the refrigerator to cool. Also chill your nutella at this time.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Once dough is chilled measure out dough into the size of walnuts (about a tablespoon and a half) and roll into balls. Flatten the dough ball very thinly into the palm of your hand. Place a small amount (1/2 to 1 teaspoon) of chilled nutella in the middle and fold dough around it; then roll back into it's walnut-sized shape, making sure that the nutella is completely encased by the dough.

Bake the cookies 9-11 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown. They will look a bit underdone in the middle, but will continue to cook once out of the oven. Cool the cookies on the sheets at least 2 minutes. Sprinkle with a little sea salt. Try not to burn the roof of your mouth while you shovel them all into your belly in one sitting. 

Bagels with Vegetable Cream Cheese

It must be breakfast week on the blog.

I made these a few weeks ago, and now that they're gone, I'm living vicariously through this post. These bagels reminded me of Bruegger's Bagels. When I was in high school, I'd get a hot, fresh, plain bagel, nothing on it and unsliced, and eat it from the outside in. As in, I'd peel the crust off first, eat that, then eat the middle kind of like a donut. It's strange, I know. These bagels remind me of that.

These are kind of like my pretzel recipe. Probably slightly easier than my pretzel recipe, though equally tasty. I tried to make bagels using my pretzel recipe and failed miserably at it, but this one was much, much better.

As you might have guessed, making dough is strangely not my forte. I've had to throw entire batches of things out because I couldn't get the consistency right. I love my dough hook on my strand-up mixer, but it doesn't seem to love me. My bread maker, on the other hand, is a very close, good friend. We get along very well. Throw the stuff in, hit a few buttons, walk away, then poof! Dough in two hours.

I made these, boiled and baked them, and of course the smell brought Adam down the stairs. He tried one, responded with just "Yes", then took another one back up to his office. I guess that means that this is a winner? I'm ready to vary on the flavor, maybe a whole wheat, poppy, or everything, but this is a pretty simple enough recipe to be able to try 15 different ways if you want.

To go with it, I made some vegetable cream cheese. The first time I made this, it was because I had a basket of vegetables that my father had won at a family auction. I went up to congratulate him, noted how much was in it, and he promptly handed it to me, telling me I could probably do more with it than he could. So, one of the things I made with it was veggie cream cheese. Stupidly easy, and damn tasty. It helps that the base is regular cream cheese, and throwing in diced veggies and mixing it up are essentially the only directions. Who knew I could enjoy radishes so much?

Bagels with Vegetable Cream Cheese (recipes from allrecipes.com and foodnetwork.com)

Bagels (recipe adapted from allrecipes.com):

1 c. warm water (roughly 110 degrees)
1.5 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
3 c. bread flour (I didn't have enough bread flour, so I substituted 2 cups with regular white whole wheat flour)
2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (one single serve package)
3 quarts boiling water
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. cornmeal
1 egg white
if you are interested in toppings, use 3 Tbsp. of your choice-poppyseeds, garlic, sesame seeds, etc.)

Place first five ingredients in the breadmaker with the liquid on the bottom and the yeast on the top. Select dough setting.

When dough is done, let it rest on a floured surface for about ten minutes. While the dough rests, boil the water and 3 tablespoons sugar.

Slice the dough into eight to ten equal pieces. Roll each piece into a small ball , then poke a hole in the middle using your finger. Make the hole and the bagel bigger by twirling it around your finger, then cover and let rest for ten minutes.

Sprinkle a baking sheet lined with parchment paper with cornmeal. Place bagels in boiling water for one minute, flipping over at the 30 second mark. Drain on a towel, then arrange on the baking sheet on top of the cornmeal. Brush the tops with egg white and sprinkle with toppings (if using).

Bake at 375 degrees for 20-15 minutes, or until bagels are nicely browned.

Vegetable Cream Cheese (recipe adapted from Food Network)

• 
  
• 2 8 oz. packages room temperature cream cheese
• 2 Tbsp. minced scallions
• 2 Tbsp. diced carrot
• 2 Tbsp. diced celery
• 2 Tbsp. diced radish 
• 2 Tbsp. diced red pepper
• salt and pepper, to taste

Place all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed until blended. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Philly-Style pretzels

Let's talk pretzels.

But first, I have a confession: I didn't want to post this recipe. I didn't want anyone to know where it came from, and for that matter, know how easy they actually are to make, but these were too much of a hit to not share. So, here it goes:

I got this recipe from Bobby Flay. From a Throwdown episode, no less.

This past December, I went to Philadelphia to celebrate Christmas with Adam's family. We had a lovely time, playing games, playing with the dogs (and having an unfortunate incident in which they found my Christmas candy, but that's another story for another time. Bottom line, they're none worse for the wear!) and keeping warm and dry from the blizzard going on outside. Before the snow hit though, I got my first taste of Philly pretzel.

It was the kind of pretzel that was chewy all throughout with a little bit of crunch (but only a little!). The Philly-style pretzel got rave reviews from friends (one even admitted that she would get a hot pretzel every morning before school when she lived there). I will go so far as to say that Philadelphia has the best pretzels I have ever eaten.

Fast forward to about a month later, when we were watching Throwdown one evening on the Food Network. We were trying to figure out what to serve for the upcoming superbowl party we were hosting, and it hit us like a ball in the face: we should make pretzels! I was a little wary: I hate making dough. Really, it's true. On the other hand, there was no way we'd get fresh pretzels from Philly that wouldn't taste stale by the time they arrived in Boston. So I thought of an idea that I wish I had thought of a long time ago.





I used my bread maker.





And made, quite possibly, the best pretzels this side of Philly.



It really wasn't that hard: combine the wet ingredients in the bottom of the pan, put the dry ingredients on top, make a well for the yeast, and start the machine. Voila! Dough!

I made these pretzels again this weekend for Adam's birthday dinner with friends. I made the dough, let it rise, formed the pretzels, and boiled and baked them. So. Good. I had Adam taste test one fresh from the oven, and then made him wait until people began arriving last night before he could have another. I had to do it myself. No lie, between the two of us we would have eaten the entire batch. And the next one I made. So to our friends, I say, that was a great exercise in self-restraint for the both of us.

I got to eat the last one today, and I'll be honest, I'm very sad they're gone. I guess that means I'll have to make more.

Soft Pretzels (recipe courtesy of Bobby Flay and the Food Network)

1 1/2 c. warm water
2 tbsp. light brown sugar
1 package active dry yeast (I've used the jarred yeast too, and it just doesn't work as well. Learn from my mistakes, use the packaged yeast. If you must, though, 2 1/4 tsp of yeast from a jar equals one package)
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 1/2 tsp. salt
4 3/4 c. all-purpose flour

Combine the water, sugar, yeast, and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix with the dough hook until combined. Let sit for 5 minutes.

Add the salt and flour and mix on low speed until combined. Increase the speed to medium and continue kneading until the dough is smooth and begins to pull away from the side of the bowl, about 3 to 4 minutes. If the dough appears too wet, add additional flour, 1 tablespoon at a time. Remove the dough from the bowl, place on a flat surface and knead into a ball with your hands.

**If you choose to go the bread-maker route, try this method: Combine the wet ingredients (water, butter) in the bottom of the bread machine pan. Then add the flour, sugar, and salt on top. DO NOT MIX TOGETHER. Make a small well in the flour, then put the yeast in. Set your bread machine maker to the dough setting. Then follow the rest of the directions below.

Oil a bowl with vegetable oil (I used olive oil), add the dough and turn to coat with the oil. Cover with a clean towel or plastic wrap and place in a warm spot until the dough doubles in size, about 1 hour. If you need to, the dough can also rise in the fridge overnight.

When you are ready to make the dough, Bring 3 quarts of water (12 cups) to a boil in a pot over high heat and add 3/4 c. baking soda.

Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a flat surface. Divide the dough into 8-16 equal pieces, depending on how big you'd like your pretzels. I did it in 16 pieces, and made pretzels that were about the size of my fist. Roll each piece into a long rope: make the rope into a "U" shape and then cross your hands over each other to pick up the ends, then fold down to the bottom of the "U". Boil the pretzels in the water solution for 30 seconds, splashing the tops with the warmed water using a spoon. Remove with a large flat slotted spatula or spoon. Place pretzels on a baking sheet, press together to make them bake into each other, brush the tops with the egg wash and season liberally with the salt. Place into a preheated 425 degree oven and bake for 15-18 minutes until golden brown.

These are awesome all on their own, straight from the oven, or dipped in some cheese sauce or honey mustard. Yes, please, and thank you.

Flourless Chocolate Brownies

These brownies are completely different from any brownie I've ever made before.

Besides the fact that there's no flour in them.



I first made these last fall, and am not sure why I haven't made them since. Stick everything in a blender (or a food processor, if it's not in the dishwasher already), blend, and put in a greased pan and bake for a half hour. They're very good, for what's in them.



You'll still have to wait until I tell you what's in them.

It's possible I didn't actually make them again because of the stress that ensued while I had them in my possession. Last September I got tickets to U2, one of my most favorite bands (3 times in the same week, but who's counting?). I was so excited to be able to go but I knew that I had better bring snacks, since the traffic to Foxboro was so crazy, especially on game and concert days. This particular day was no exception. I picked up a friend of mine, and we gave ourselves roughly an extra hour or so to get there, knowing the trip took about an hour in the first place. I had the brownies in the backseat.

Fast forward to nearly 3 hours later, when we were still on the road, we could see Foxboro to our left, and if you rolled down the windows and listened, you could barely hear The Edge's guitar. I was so stressed and upset I couldn't do anything, but I did have a brownie or two, and I'm fairly sure I provided some good entertainment for my friend as I slowly melted down in the driver's seat.

We finally made it to the show, and managed to see most of U2's set. This made me much happier, and the excitement definitely returned. That is, until we got back into the car to drive home. And waited in the parking lot for almost 2 hours.

Needless to say, that pan of brownies was nearly polished off by the two of us before we even hit the highway (overall, the return trip took somewhere in the vicinity of 4 hours, in case you were wondering).

I liked them then, and I still like them now, but they will forever be brandished in my mind as "the brownies I took on that horrific drive to Foxboro to see my favorite band play". Here's hoping that they aren't bad luck, and the next time I put them in my car I won't be stuck on the highway for 3 days.



So, still curious about the extra special ingredient? These brownies contain black beans. And you'd never know it unless someone told you. They taste like, well, like flourless brownies. Soft and chocolate-y, and overall, pretty damn good. I love simple recipes that taste good.




Flourless Brownies (recipe from www.wholefoods.com)
1 (15-ounce) can of black beans, drained and rinsed
3 large eggs
1/3 c. melted butter (but let it cool down a bit before adding it to the mixture-adding scalding hot butter to something with cold eggs will scramble it!)
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. plus 2 tbsp sugar
1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 c. finely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease an 8-inch baking pan with some spray butter. Put the black beans, eggs, melted butter, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla extract and sugar in the bowl of a food processor or in a blender and blend until smooth. Remove the blade (if using a food processor) and stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Transfer mixture to the pan and bake the brownies for 30 to 35 minutes, or until it is just set in the center. Cool before cutting.

Granola Bars

Okay, I'm now out of granola. When you're out of granola you do the only thing you can.


You make granola bars.

I'm fairly certain that I have had a lot of granola and granola bars over this past month. Not that I'm complaining. It actually took awhile for me to grow into liking granola and granola bars, but I'm really glad I enjoy them now. I don't know why they weren't top on my list before (wait, maybe that's because chocolate is number one on my list-hell, it still is, really. I can't lie.) but they sit pretty high up these days.

About a year and a half back, I was into a different granola bar recipe. That one and the one I'm writing up now are pretty similar except for the boiling honey and the toasted grains. I think the other one had flour in it, which made it much more bar/cake like. This one: no flour. Makes things interesting.





And how. It's very sweet (with honey, a bunch of fruit, and some brown sugar, you'd think it sweet too!) but it's pretty much a home run (did someone say home run? Just 5 days until Opening Day!!). Not to mention it's really not difficult to do. I wish my food processor wasn't dirty-otherwise I might just have chopped the fruit in that to save time and sticky fingers. I managed though.



Granola Bars (recipe from The Barefoot Contessa, at www.foodnetwork.com)

* 2 c. old-fashioned oats
* 1 c. sliced almonds
* 1 c. shredded coconut (I used sweetened coconut though unsweetened could work just as well)
* 1/2 c, toasted wheat germ
* 3 tbsp. unsalted butter
* 2/3 c. honey
* 1/4 c. light brown sugar
* 1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
* 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
* 1/2 c. chopped pitted dates
* 1/2 c. chopped dried apricots
* 1/2 c. dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8 by 12-inch baking dish and line it with parchment paper.

Toss the oatmeal, almonds, and coconut together on a sheet pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring and restirring every 5 minutes or so, until lightly browned. Put mixture in a large mixing bowl and stir in the wheat germ.

Bring the oven temperature down to 300 degrees F.

Place the butter, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt in a small pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Let the mixture continue to cook for a minute or so and then pour over the toasted oatmeal mixture. Add the dried fruit and incorporate everything together well.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Wet your fingers and lightly press the mixture evenly into the pan. If you'd rather not use your fingers you can use the back of a spoon or a spatula. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the top is a light golden color. Cool for at least 2 to 3 hours before cutting into squares.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I stumbled on this recipe several months ago, back when I was trying to decide what to put in my Christmas baked good goody bags. I couldn't remember if I'd ever had them, and I certainly knew I'd never baked them before, so I decided to give them a shot.

How glad I was that I did. The cookies that came from this recipe were outstanding. They were crunchy, which is unlike a lot of chocolate chip cookie varieties I'd made, and they had a lot of chocolate in them, which is very much like a lot of chocolate chip cookie varieties I'd made. Plus, there was oatmeal in it, and whole wheat flour, so I could pretend that they were good for you.

Although the cookie didn't make the Christmas baked good cut, I did get compliments from friends that tried it then. One friend in particular asked me last week if I'd make them again for her. I love requests, as we all know, so this morning, bright and early, I put the dough together, baked it off, and had one fantastic cookie on my hands.




And then the cookies traveled to her house, where I conveniently left without them-because if I took them home, they would very likely have been eaten all at once. And three dozen cookies is a lot to eat at once!

...but if I had to, I would have done it. :)



"Mom’s oatmeal cookies" (recipe discovered from the Homesick Texan)

3/4 c. of butter, softened (I melted it, per usual)
3/4 c. of brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. oats (not quick cooking)
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups of chocolate chips (or, if you like chocolate as much as I do, one entire 12 oz. bag of semisweet)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cream together the butter, sugar and egg (if you can use a hand mixer, please do and save yourself some time!). Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
Place small balls of dough on a greased or parchment-paper lined cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes. Let cool and enjoy.

Lemon Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Settle in, friends. This is one long, picture heavy post (thanks to my guest photographer that documented while I was decorating this cake-it makes things so much easier to get things done and documented when someone else is holding the camera!)

Let's talk birthday cake. I do love me a good birthday cake. Not only do I love eating cake, I love making it as well. A good friend of mine (and former roommate)is celebrating the day of her birth next week, and we are all commemorating with a big party tonight at her place. A few weeks ago, I asked if I might be able to help with the food, and her boyfriend came back with a very specific request (actually, specific requests are helpful because then I don't second guess myself in the creativity department): A cat shaped cake, in her favorite flavor combination, lemon with chocolate frosting.

Let me say that again: A cat shaped cake, in her favorite flavor combination, lemon with chocolate frosting.

Well, okay.

I'll be totally honest-I like lemon cake, and I love chocolate frosting, but combined together? Not really my favorite. To each their own though. and a cat cake-well, I'd never made a cat cake before (once for my family's Easter celebration my dish assignment was the bunny cake, but for some reason it didn't go very well-and my sister makes the best bunny cake anyway). I love me a good challenge though, so I got to work.

Here's the way to get yourself a cute cat cake, in many fun steps.

1. Make Lemon Cake (see recipe at end). The original recipe told me it would yield one 10 inch cake, so I doubled the recipe. This turned out to be a huge downfall.

The bowl was too small, the measurements were too big, and my kitchenaid mixer totally freaked out. That machine is easily 35 years old, as a guess, and still runs quite well, but the grooves holding the bowl into place have become a little loose over the years. There was enough butter in there that wasn't soft enough that the bowl came loose and I wound up having to stand at the mixer with both hands firmly planted on the bowl so it wouldn't fly across the room.
After I got everything into the bowl, I realized I couldn't get everything incorporated with my little kitchenaid, so I had to ditch it and try my hand held mixer to get everything set. Until it became too much for that too, and then I had to use a regular wooden spoon. I could have gotten my workout that day from making this cake batter alone-there was no need for the gym with this task!

(I wish I still had pictures of this. I know I took them but I may have accidentally deleted them. So sad. If I find them I will repost them here)
2. If making this cake several days in advance, as I was, let cool and then wrap very well in plastic (I also used tin foil, which I'm sure is a big no-no, but I wanted to be sure).

3. Prepare cake for transport to my sister's house, where a chest freezer is in existence (because my own is filled with stuff already).

4. Bring treat for sister and family to bribe with bringing said cake to store in said chest freezer for a few days.

5. Make fudge frosting (see recipe below). This can be done a few days in advance (or for me, the morning before I frosted the cake. I doubled the frosting recipe, just in case. This had much better results than the cake doubling process from the day before. Except that I was short one unsweetened chocolate square. Later taste testing proved that the missing square made absolutely no difference. Cover frosting, and do not refrigerate (yes, really).

6. Get cake back from sister's house when ready to frost.


7. Invite a friend over. Drink lots of wine and get her to take pictures of you decorating the cake. (Decorating is much better and way more entertaining on a buzz!)

8. Said friend is able to give advice on things you should try and opinions of how cake is looking, but mostly will laugh as you work with frosting, marshmallow, cake, and licorice.

9. Cut second cake a little smaller than the first (this will be the head). If you do this right you will have a nice border left that you can split-to serve as the cat tail and cat ears.

10. Frost cake with a thin chocolate layer (I used canned frosting to do this, gasp!). This will help to hide holes between the piped frosting that should look like fur. Then pipe cake using a flower tip to simulate fur using the homemade frosting. Cut marshmallows in half and stack down the cake to simulate legs and cover with frosting.


11. Decorate face with a flattened, stretched marshmallow, black licorice, and pink fondant.







11. Make a cat collar in the birthday girl's favorite color using fondant, and proceed to write the Happy Birthday message there, preferably using a food pen (yup, those actually exist. Try any craft store).

12. Refrigerate cake for the next day. Pray it doesn't fall apart or something doesn't fall on it. When it does (and it did), fix in the morning with more piped fur frosting.



13. Bring to birthday party. Hope the birthday girl likes the cake (I will have to get back to you on this one).


14. Bring backup dessert as well for those of us who don't care much for the lemon/chocolate combination.

I did get to try some of the scraps of the lemon cake, and I have to admit that I liked the cake very much. It was really dense, but had a very distinct lemon flavor. It also holds up quite well, which helps, especially if you're carving it into a shape. The fudge frosting is one of my favorites-I got it from a coworker at Tufts, and it's from Rosie's Bakery. It's really easy and very rich. My friend who was over giving me moral support while I prepared this cake told me that she quite enjoyed the fudge frosting, and over time, grew to like the lemon/chocolate combo. I thought it was decent too, though I don't think it will ever be my first (or second, for that matter) choice for cake. Overall, I was very happy with the way this tasted and the way this turned out! If it's not your choice for flavor combo either, make 'em separate. They're both quite good, if I do say so myself.

Luxury Lemon Cake (recipe obtained from Boston.com)
(This recipe claims it makes one 10 inch cake, so I doubled it and found myself with 4 9 inch rounds. I'd say if you are making a layer cake with this recipe, keep it the single version. If you're making a cat cake like above, you might want to double just in case you make a mistake and you need backup cake)


Finely grated rind of 3 lemons
2 teaspoons lemon extract
3 1/4 c. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 3/4 c. sugar
5 eggs
1 c. buttermilk

1. Set the oven at 325 degrees. Grease and flour your cake pan(s) and set aside to be ready.

2. In a small bowl, mix together the lemon rind and extract.

3. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into another medium bowl.

4. In an electric mixer, beat the butter at medium speed for 3 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar in three portions, beating for 1 minute after each one. Add in the eggs, one at a time, mixing for 30 seconds after each one. Make sure you scrape down the sides of the bowl to keep everything fully mixed together.

5. Blend in the lemon mixture. On low speed, add the flour mixture and the buttermilk in 3 separate additions, alternating the wet and dry ingredients, beginning and ending with flour.

6. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan(s) and smooth the surface with a rubber spatula.

7. Bake the cake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake is clean (it took me about an hour for this to be done).

8. Let cool in pans for about 10 minutes, then take out and let cool fully on wire rack. Either frost once cooled or wrap well in plastic and freeze until ready to use (can be frozen for about a week).

Fudge Frosting (recipe from Rosie's Bakery)

* 6 OZ. Unsweetened chocolate (use the Baker's brand-they come in handy 1 oz. squares!)
* 1 c. plus 2 tbsp evaporated milk
* 1 1/2 c. sugar

1. Melt chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave, checking every 30 seconds or so. Cool.
2. Blend the evaporated mild and sugar in a blender at medium speed for 30 seconds. You really need to use a blender for this, do not use a hand-held mixer or a spoon.
3. Add the chocolate to the sugar mixture in the blender and blend on high speed until the frosting thickens, Approximately 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. You will notice the mixer's sound will change when the frosting has thickened.
4. Spoon the frosting into a bowl and let it set at room temperature for 30 minutes. Cover the bowl and let the frosting to set for at least 1 more hour before frosting your cake. Do not refrigerate the frosting. Just make sure it is covered well.