Dark Chocolate Cake

Well, Friends...I've offically been recipe blogging for a month now and I love it.  This isn't a long time  compared to most bloggers out there, but I'm pretty proud of myself!  I started out with blogger because of it's simplicity but I'm ready to move to another site - for good.  So, starting tomorrow, Feb 1, I will be moving to another site.  I'll let you know then......

Now on to the good stuff! I've been craving something chocolatey for the past several days.  I let Reagan pick and she decided she wanted chocolate cake.  mmmmmmm...this is heavenly!

Dark Chocolate Cake
2 c boiling water
1 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1 c butter
2 1/4 c sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 3/4 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Heavily grease a 9 inch bundt pan.  In medium bowl, mix boiling water and cocoa powder.  Stir together very well and let cool.  Meanwhile, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder in another medium bowl.  Set aside.  In your mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar well - at least 2 minutes.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Mix well again.  Add half of the flour mixture and mix. Slowly poor in cocoa/water mixture and make sure everything is mixed well.  Add the last half of the flour mixture and combine well for the last time.  Make sure to mix all the way to the bottom.  Pour into bundt pan and bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool.  Frost with you favorite frosting.

In the words of my fantastic Uncle Ron:

"Well, that'll just jerk the pounds right off ya!"

Brown Sugar Chicken

It's been another busy day with running errands, and so I love using my crockpot on these kind of days. Since tonight was Parent's Choice, and since Mike and I love Chinese food, I made Brown Sugar Chicken. This is so, so easy to throw together. The recipe calls for chicken breasts, but I actually prefer to use chicken thighs if I have them (which is what I used today).

Brown Sugar Chicken

2 lbs frozen, boneless chicken, cut into chunks

2 Tbsp soy sauce

2/3 c vinegar

1/4 c lemon-lime soda (or whatever you might have on hand - I actually use Diet Coke!)

1 c brown sugar

2 Tbsp minced garlic

1/4-1/2 tsp black pepper (to taste)

Place frozen chicken in crockpot. Mix together rest of ingredients in a bowl and pour over the top of the chicken. Cover with lid and set crockpot to low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-6 hours. Serve with rice or fried rice.

As I was reading one of my favorite blogs today (Baker's Banter), I saw a post about a Mystery Cake. Welllll, since I'm a Campbell, here's my version of this old cake:

Campbell's Cake

4 Tbsp butter, softened

1 c sugar

1 egg

1 can Campbell's Tomato soup

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 c flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ginger

2 tsp cinnamon

Cream Cheese frosting (I used Betty Crocker's)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 inch round pan or one muffin tin (12 count). Cream together butter and sugar. Add egg and mix well. Open tomato soup and add the baking soda, stir. It will foam up like this:

Add this to the creamed mixture, and mix well. It will look curdled, but this is okay :D In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and spices. Add this to the rest of the tomato mixture and beat well (on medium for 1-2 minutes). Pour batter into pan or divide out into muffin tin. Bake for 30-35 minutes for 9 inch pan or 20-25 minutes for cupcakes. Cool completely and top with Cream Cheese frosting.

Seeing as I always get at least one set of the rolled eyes and "I don't really like Chinese" or "do I have to eat the rice?", these yummy lil' spiced cupcakes were the redeeming factor.