Chocolate EB Tea

Tags

birthday, birthday party, cake, family, food, humour, tea, tea addict, tea lover, tea time

What goes best with tea?

Well, scones obviously.

Or cookies.

But the answer I was looking for was cake.

Little Guy celebrated his sweet 16 this weekend, and I have been informed that since he nearly towers over every member of our immediate family, (and has long objected to the nickname “Little Guy”), I have to come up with a new nickname here. Tall and short are out as that offends the older the brother, who is shorter than Little Guy, but obviously, still towers over me. Beard and No Beard may only work for a couple more years. Dumb and Dumber doesn’t work because sometimes it’s hard to tell them apart. Also, as a Mom, I should be more sensitive. No.1 and No.2 makes me think of bathroom jokes, which I’m sorry, work at any age (can you tell I live with men?). Finally, first initial works is kinda boring (I was not dumb goofy enough to do the same). I’m open to suggestions!

Since “formerly named Little Guy” expressed NO opinion on the flavour of his cake (obviously he inherited defective genes from the other side), I chose one of my favourites, chocolate (I got good genes from my Dad!) And what better way to celebrate chocolate than by adding tea, English Breakfast tea. I first used this recipe for Chocolate Tea cake for my own birthday cake in 2019 and immediately fell in love. Even though, let’s be honest, it’s hard not to love ANY chocolate cake. For starters, it was simple to put together, and after my plethora of baking disasters, easy is greatly appreciated! Richly dark in colour, the texture was moist and light with a decadent chocolate flavour.

C grade for decorating but A for effort and lack of tears!

There are a few theories about how the English Breakfast tea blend came to be (and yes, it differs from Irish Breakfast and Scottish Breakfast blends). One theory involves Queen Anne; the other theory, trade embargos during the Opium Wars (1839-1860). However it came to be, English Breakfast tea is a strong and bold tea mostly composed of Assam and Ceylon tea leaves. Both are classified as black teas, and certainly provide lots of caffeine to help kick-start the day.

Or in our case, keep the party going all evening! And the next day….and the day after that. Yum!

A party without a cake is just a meeting!

Julia Child

Dear Quarantine Diary – Week #18

Tags

baking, birthday, covid-19 diary, covid-19 humour, dear diary, humour, humour course

Dear Diary – I’m living the dream. Wanna know how? I’ve learned to set the bar low. Today I rocked air guitar in the shower. I am living the dream!

Dear Diary – After the fiasco that was last week, my new credit card arrived Friday. Too bad it was not the replacement for the cancelled card, but the old card with a new expiry date. I still have to wait for the new card. [Note: new card arrived Monday…now I can pay some bills!]

Dear Diary – So another birthday flew by and I’m another year closer to death.

They guys gave a new Fitbit wristband. It’s pink and much more attractive than the one I had tied together with an elastic band. They also gave me a new cake pan that can make a giant letters or a set of numbers. I think I’ll make a “25” for my birthday next year.

I’m not old…I’m 25 plus shipping and handling.

Big Guy isn’t able to visit so he surprised me with breakfast from Cora’s. I enjoyed a buckwheat crepe with fresh strawberries and English cream, in bed!

We ordered in pizza for supper – both pies had lots of bacon!

I spent a lot of timing working on my cake again this year. Last year I did a pink sparkling champagne wine cake with pale pink rosettes in buttercream. This year I went with a vanilla cake with a twist…I made it purple. It looked so pretty in Pinterest.

The funny thing is, I don’t even really like purple!

While mine looked pretty too, the only flavour came from the sickly sweet buttercream icing, and it made a huge cake. Good thing I have a friend who is also asking, “did you bake this weekend?”.

Dear God –
Please make me skinny. But if you don’t want to make me skinny…please make my friends fat. Amen

Dear Diary – Hubby came home today with new equipment for work…but he still has the equipment he’s been using since last March. More and more, my dining room table is starting to resemble the bridge of the Starship Enterprise!

Beam me up, Scottie!

Dear Diary – It was Week #3 of my Intro to Writing humour course. During class, we were given 2 in-class assignments. In the first one, we had to fill in the blanks. Some of the questions were…

What if —————— ruled the world?

What if your ————————- wanted to kill you?

What if you are actually a ——————— instead of a person?

Absurdity was strongly encouraged.

Then we had to pick one and write a sketch outline where one thing leads to the next.

I was too embarrassed to share in class.

What if there was a tiny elephant living in your underpants?
It would be hard to go ask someone on a date because the elephant would get bored when you’re just standing and talking and it would start to roam around your underpants.
You would start to dance so the person you’re talking to doesnt’ see it roaming around your underpants and start to freak out.
Then you would start to sweat and the temperature in your underpants would rise. The elephant would start to get too hot and would begin to complain loudly.
You don’t want your potential date to think you’re farting so you try to discreetly slip some peanuts in your underpants.
But then your potential date catches you dropping peanuts in your underpants, so you point behind her to try to distract her.
Meanwhile the elephant would smell the peanuts and get really upset because he didn’t get any peanuts, and he begins to bellow. It sounds like a giant rump trumpet.
By now, a crowd has gathered to watch you dancing and trumpeting, and crushing peanuts under your feet. And you would realize that you and your tiny elephant would forever be alone.
You would run away to the park where you could be alone with your thoughts and feed your elephant peanuts. But then a police officr would catch you with your hand in your underpants and arrest you.
Instead of being alone, you and your tiny elephant would be making new friends in prison.

For the second assignment, we had to pitch a parody that used people and/or a familiar scene that would be familiar to most people. The best I could come up with was “ Hell’s Kitchen: Nerds & Birds” edition. Or the less popular title, “Boogers & Cougars”!

I was too embarrassed to share that idea too!

Dear Diary – It’s always fun to read old Facebook posts. In 2011, I had posted “M & I were lined up at Wal-Mart, and the woman in line ahead of me today pressed some change into my hand to buy M a choclate bar. Her grandsons are grown and she missed giving ‘surprise treats’!”

In 2016, I wrote “So one of my children informed me (out of the blue) that I won’t be getting the Best Mom of the Year award this year because some of my stories are ‘too gross’.”

Yesteday I ate lunch with that same child and I was feeling pretty good. I smiled at him. That was my first mistake. Then I said something witty. That was my second mistake. He gave me a dirty look and told me that this lockdown is hard enough and he has to live here too. He said, “you would make it easier for me if you were less you“.

I bit my tongue. Sure, it stung! What mother wants to hear that her offspring finds her repulsive. On the other hand, teenager! I wanted to retort right back that it would be easier for me if he was less “him”. Or to launch into a rant about how we are uniquely made and I’m an original. Or the less mature route of sticking my tongue out and making a face at him. Instead, I smiled sweetly, with a sparkle of mischief in my eyes. Let him figure out what I was thinking. Good things come to those who sweat…

Go ahead! Underestimate me…That’ll be fun!

Unknown

Dear Diary – I missed National Naked Gardening Day. On the positive side, it was a little chilly to be out for long on Saturday, even in a heavy coat. On the negative side, I missed scaring Thunder Nugget next door. I figured, if she’s going to scream and thunder around the house all day, I might as well give her something to scream about!

Dear Diary – I’m scheduled to be shot at High Noon on Mother’s Day!

For weeks, we’ve been a rose between two thorns…or rather, between two “hot spots” for Covid. We’ve finally arrived and I get my vaccination. Being immune-compromised wasn’t a good enough reason to offer it to me.

I’m not stupid enough to believe that life will return to normal any time soon, but getting my vaccination does feel like a step in the right direction!

I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it
I’m about to lose control and I think I like it!

The Pointer Sisters, I’m So Excited

It’s Halo Night

Tags

birthday, Halo, Overwatch, photography, sunsets, video games, zombies

It’s Halo Night!

Even though we haven’t actually played Halo in a couple of years, choosing to play Overwatch instead, Big Guy and I connect weekly on Wednesdays. It’s his fault I became a gamer. However, video games are good for me, I’ve learned some things, and there are a bunch of reasons that I play! I could probably add to that list now.

Big Guy has helped me try out some other things too! He ran in Mud Hero with me (so he’d know where my body was buried in the woods). He took me to the gun range for my 45th birthday. He also bought me my zombie killing axe after I won an axe throwing “tournament”.

Last year we were planning to ride in a tank. Instead, the highlight was my Tim Horton’s steeped tea, black (after a 40 day fast) and standing in line outside the liquor store with a group of scrawny, tattooed small town mountain men, to buy pink champagne!

My, how the times have changed!

Tonight, on the eve of my 48th birthday, I will be fighting for world domination as a battle angel with my Big Guy. Tomorrow night, I will be fighting for world domination as a Spartan with my Little Guy (who is now significantly taller than me and loving it)!

I know I’ve always said I’ve wanted a daughter, but who better to have beside me in the event of the apocalypse, than my boys!?!

Happy Wednesday!

Dear Quarantine Diary – Week #15

Tags

baking, birthday, covid-19 diary, covid-19 humour, dear diary, humour, vaccination

Dear Diary – I took my friend for her covid vaccination about half an hour north of the city. Almost everything went according to plan. Minutes after my friend headed into the arena, an ambulance arrived, lights and sirens going. My immediate thought was, “what did she do”? Then my cell phone rang.

It was my friend.

Could I bring her driver’s license in to her? The ambulance was just a coincidence. Relief! Thankfully I had clean masks in the car and after digging in her purse and giggling over her license photo, I headed in. I received a lot of disapproving looks from seniors as I patiently stood in line. The staff were very friendly and efficient. I was “processed” and sent to the next staff member quickly. I found my friend, a red-head among haloes of white, and hightailed it out there.

The deed is done and I don’t have to take her back until July!

If I’m lucky, I’ll get my vaccinations before 2022.

Dear Diary – It’s March break! I’ve had a few people correct me saying it’s supposed to be “April break” or “Spring break”, but I prefer March Break. Covid has already messed up so much – let me have my fun!

Speaking of fun, May 1 is “Naked Gardening Day”. It’s been pretty dull in our neighbourhoods lately. Anyone care to join me?

Dear Diary – I was looking at job postings recently, not that I’m in a hurry to come out of retirement. With less stress, my body is letting me enjoy things again, like fresh vegetables and oatmeal! One posting caught my eye, although commuting 2 hours a day, 5-6 days a week didn’t appeal. I had all the qualifications save one: I am not a guy! It was subtle but unmistakeably there in black and white. Without going into a whole theological dispute, I understand from where they are coming but I don’t entirely agree. I was just so surprised with transparent wording in a public post. Obviously not the place for me!

Dear Diary – Every. Freaking. Time.

You would think by now that I would have learned that I was not created to bake and all the wishes in the world cannot change that. My friend was lamenting another covid birthday without a birthday cake, so I (stupidly) offered to bake her one. She decided she would like a chocolate and vanilla marble cake. I have never made one before so it seemed a do-able challenge. Then she decided she’d rather have a banana tear-away cake. A tear-away cake is basically cupcakes iced together to look like a slab cake or a shape, like a race car. I may possess some artistic genes, but this one required a lot more thinking outside the box.

First, I researched. A rainbow cake with clouds used 68 cupcakes. Nope! An ice cream cone used as many or few as desired, but it needs a long platter. Nope! A bunny butt uses about 13 cupcakes. Tempting! I picked a pattern. I found and printed a recipe. And I thawed my 3 sad, black bananas.

Sunday morning after church, I embarked…only to discover that I was short 1/4 cup of margarine…and my only block of butter was frozen solid. Before covid, I would have felt compelled to get dressed and go to the store. Instead, I felt utterly defeated and slighly panicked as this cake needed to be delivered in 2 days!

By afternoon, the butter was ready but my heart was no longer in it. It took me over 2 hours to put it all together. I delivered it Tuesday afternoon, all hyped up on buttercream. She didn’t know what it was supposed to be…

And I didn’t even get to taste it….

Dear Diary – My birthday is sneaking up again. Last year, I was still enjoying an extended March Break at my parents’, which kinda let my guys off the hook. I ordered my birthday present and waited impatiently while the delivery company lied about the delivery date. I baked my own pink champagne sparkling wine cake (I wanted to bake it), after standing in line with scrawny, tattooed mountain men outside the liquor store.

And I savoured my first Tim Horton’s after a 40 day fast (not self-imposed)!!

I’m really not sure how we’re going to top that!

I gave Hubby my birthday list in plenty of time. I agree, it was pretty underwhelming. We’ll see if the delivery company can keep their promise this year.

Dear Diary – You know that feeling, when you do something spontaneous and then you think to yourself, “what have I done”? Dum, dum, dum…

Or maybe it’s dumb, dumb, dumb! Anyway, I applied to take an 8 week online course on writing humour. It’s being taught by one of The Arrogant Worms. When I asked Hubby what he thought about me taking a “humour course”, he said I could use some.

What’s even funnier is that I was accepted! Class starts Tuesday night.

Keep your sense of humor. As General Joe Stillwell said, ‘The higher a monkey climbs, the more you see of his behind’

Donald Rumsfeld

Dear Quarantine Diary #34

Tags

birthday, covid-19 diary, covid-19 humour, dear diary, family, humour, short people.

Dear Diary – This morning, much to Little Guy’s horror, Hubby and I crawled in bed next to him. It’s his birthday! I resisted the urge to sing the traditional “birthday song”…first thing in the morning – I’ll sing it at lunch! He’ll be awake by then!

It’s hard to believe he’s turning 15! He towers over me and smells like a man. Where did my baby go? As we got ready for bed last night, Hubby reminisced about his white knuckle drive to the hospital at 5 a.m. It was snowing and the roads were slick. We passed one car in the ditch. But first, we stopped at Tim Horton’s for his morning coffee.

I imagine my Mom reminisced about her white knuckle drive at midnight. She drove up to stay with Big Guy, even braving all the highways to get here. We shared a cup of tea before she went to bed, some time after 2 a.m. What Moms are willng to do for their kids!

Happy Birthday Little Guy! We love you!

Dear Diary – Why do they always go for the nose? Or the face? Did it think my nose is an exotic cave to be explored? Was there treasure in there? We had one fruit fly that was determined to follow me from room to room to flutter around my face. I looked it up. Fruit flies are attracted to decomposting fruit and veggies, as well as moisture and carbon dioxide. Obviously they aren’t concerned about Covid-19.

Dear Diary – I’ve noticed lately that we have more trains running through town. I’ve also noticed they’re much longer trains. I’ve noticed them every time I’m sitting in a long line of cars waiting at the crossing, counting the cars.

How long, are you asking? Some trains have as many as 7 engines, spread evenly throughout. Last week, instead of walking to the mechanics again, Hubby started to drive me. But, just as we turned the corner when a train came along with 3 engines. I hopped out and sent him home. I tried counting the cars, but it’s a lot harder when they’re rumbling by face. They don’t smell good either.

Dear Diary – I ordered some Christmas presents from Amazon this weekend. I rarely shop online. I prefer to browse in person so I can see it, touch it, smell it, etc. Everything I ordered estimated arrival by Dec. 20. But once I had finished my order, those delivery dates changed to “Dec. 14-Jan. 5”. We may be celebrating Christmas in January.

Dear Diary – I am not short – I am fun-sized!

This week Hubby and Little Guy had fun asking me things like, “how is the weather down there” or “are you cold…because heat rises”, all because I’m “closer to the ground”. Just to add insult to injury, they also asked me, “are you getting shorter”?

I was not amused…

CFFC: Sense of Taste

Tags

baking, birthday, cake, CFFC, cookies, cooking, food, food photography, Photo Challenge, photography

People who love to eat are always the best people. – Julia Child

Cookies are made with butter and love.

Only the pure in heart can make a good soup. – Ludwig Beethoven

If God had intended us to follow recipes, He wouldn’t have given us grandmothers. – Linda Hemley

A party without cake is just a meeting!

Strawberries are what make life taste wonderful. ― Anthony T. Hincks

Because everything is better with bacon, right?

Happy Wednesday!

This is my post for Cee Nuener’s Fun Foto Challenge: Sense of Taste

Dear Quarantine Diary – #4

Tags

birthday, covid-19 humour, dear diary, humour

Dear Diary – I sent out an SOS on Facebook for 2 round cake pans. One of the friends who responded even offered to have her husband deliver. But I didn’t think he’d want to deliver 2.5 hours away. One way. But I appreciated her offer. I took Pastor Ann up on her offer because she lives closer. I’m baking my birthday cake!

Dear Diary – Mom and I went for a walk in town today. I brought my camera. After walking and snapping shots for 30 minutes I realized…the camera was set on manual so most of my photos were going to be blurry. On the way home, we decided to swing by Pastor Ann’s for the cake pans…we thought we should call ahead, but neither of us knew how to work Mom’s phone. 10 minutes later, with tears streaming down our face, we got it to work. After we got home, I struggled to close the trunk on my car because my shoulder has been trying to freeze up. Normally, I have to stand on my toes and stretch to reach anyway, but now? More laughter ensued. It feels good to laugh. It didn’t feel so good to laugh when I got stuck in my t-shirt getting ready for bed…

Dear Diary – I remember what it’s like to drive in a small town. There are slow drivers everywhere. The closer I get to them, the slower they get. And they scowl at me in their side mirror.  I went to the gas station first. There was a line up. There’s room for 6 cars but everyone has to huddle on the 2 ends like passengers on a bus. The guy in front of me looked like a mountain man. That’s not unusual in the best of times. The bed of his red pick-up truck was full of boxes of 24s and he was filling 5 red gas cannisters. That is unusual. I felt like I was in an apocalyptic movie, just hours before the panic really starts to set in and the zombies show up!

After the gas station, I went to the LCBO and there was no line up! I needed pink champagne for my birthday cake! I had a pair of latex gloves with me and I started to put them on as I walked to the store. But the fingers were stuck together. What followed can only be described as an apoplectic display of sheer lunacy as I struggled to put on, not one, but 2 gloves. People entering the adjoining pharmacy, walked around me with a wider berth than the prescribed 6′ and stared at me, horrified. Red-faced and sweating profusely, I turned to enter the LCBO, only to discover it is closed on Mondays.

Dear Diary, I breezed out the door around 10 this morning, shouting over my shoulder, “Mom, I’m going to stand in line with the degenerates outside the liquor store”.  There was a line up of scrawny, tattooed mountain men outside…

When I went back later, there was no line. I wish I had a photo of the door clerk’s face when I asked him where I could find pink champagne: utter deer-in-the-headlights shock! He didn’t know if they still made pink champagne, so he enlisted the help of another clerk. This clerk had a goatee, that he had braided into an 8″ braid. I just wanted to snip it off. No pink champagne. “Regular” champagne was $70/bottle. Really? So I bought some sparkling pink wine instead. We’ll see how this goes. If it fails, I already have some wine.

While I was out I popped into the pharmacy next door to buy some Manic Panic blue hair dye. Love the product name. Desperate times, you know.

Dear Diary – Dad and Little Guy took some brush to the woods today. They stopped at a local bakery on the way home for nanaimo bars. Instead of a bikini this year, I’ll be wearing Mrs. Roper’s mu-mu.

Dear Diary – it’s been 1 day since I had Tim Horton’s. Dad and Little Guy picked up tea and muffins for my birthday lunch yesterday. It wasn’t steeped tea because the gal at the store refused to sell my Dad 2 cups of steeped tea. He was only allowed to have 1. Apparently there was some discussion…I don’t know all the details, but I had tea (bagged) from Tim’s. And it tasted slightly like town water which is… a unique flavour. But it counts! So happy!

Dear Diary – I baked and decorated a pink sparkling wine birthday cake. As always – big excitement, bit expectations…multiple difficulties and tears. It didn’t turn out pink. I wondered when it seemed orange before I baked it. It was yellowish instead, but very moist. I was very disappointed. The icing looked spectacular but it came at a price too. First, made a half recipe because I didn’t want icing left over. Images of Mrs. Roper’s mu-mu haunted my dreams. Even though I spread it thinly in the middle, and even though I didn’t ice the outside, it wasn’t enough. I had to make another batch. Second, I didn’t realize it was too thick until I had it in my piping bag, and it didn’t want to stick to the cake…So I had to scrape it out and thin it out again. By this time I was greasy up to my elbows. The counter and floor were getting slick too…

If it’s not going to matter in 5 years, don’t spend more than 5 minutes worrying about it!

But it’s a cake fit for a princess. Happy birthday to me!

I’m a Lumberjack

Tags

baking, birthday, birthday party, cake

I’m not a lumberjack, and I’m not OK.

If stupidity is doing the same mistake over and over again, then I’m not stupid. But mistakes were made. A lot of them. Just not the same ones.

I wanted to bake a “lumberjack” cake for my lumberjack, who turned 30 on Sunday (Now who’s feeling “old”!) Simple, right?

http://www.sugargeekshow.com

Knowing that I wasn’t quite up to this masterpiece, I elected to do a simple checkered cake instead. Baked goods like these sunglasses cookies are the height of my sophistication.

Last Thursday, I purchased a red velvet cupcake mix – pretty standard. Just add water, oil and eggs. I wanted to wait until the middle of the day when hydro is less expensive, so I went on and measured my oil and water, and left it by the mixer. After lunch, I put it all together. I even added red food colouring, but the batter was all wrong! It was thin and soupy. I had no idea what I did wrong, or how to fix it. I popped it in the oven anyway.

It wasn’t until I was cleaning up that I solved the mystery. The box said 3/4 cup of water, but I had used a 2 cup measuring cup and had added 1-3/4 cups.

The cake didn’t rise very much. It was very dense and even though it was dry to the touch, it also felt like I could wring it out like a dish rag.

On Friday, I popped into the grocery store early in the morning to purchase a white and a chocolate cake mix. I baked the chocolate one first, measuring multiple times before adding anything. Success! I then baked the white cake, which was now hot pink after adding a whole jar of red food colouring to the mix. So it’s a little weird – just go with it! I started humming “I’m a lumberjack and I’m okay….”

Saturday morning, I set about making shortbread moose cookies, but I used 2 different brands of butter, and the dough was behaving more like puffed pastry. I finally managed to cut out 4 moose with spindly legs intact. It required 2 people and an odd assortment of kitchen utensils to transfer them from the counter to the baking tray. I watched them like a hawk. Sadly, while 4 made it safely from the oven, only 2 made it to cake decorating day.

Saturday night, I poured a tiny glass of wine and went about cutting the cakes to form the checkerboard pattern. I’d love to blame the wine, but I can’t. I’m responsible for cutting the cake wrong. I cut it into tiny cubes and tried to layer them. After an hour, and mucking up 4 cutting boards, I realized that even though I got the pattern right, it would fall apart the moment we cut into it.

I was also starting to fall apart. I would have to start again.

Sunday morning, I hit the showers early and drove bleary-eyed to the grocery store for a chocolate cake mix and a red velvet cupcake mix. I didn’t have any red food colouring left in the house. I carefully laid everything out and memorized my instructions. I also warned my family that as soon as the church service was over, I was leaving! If they wanted a ride home, they’d best be on my heels. Big Guy was due to arrive in the afternoon and we were only going to have a very short time with him before he went out with his friends. My birthday boy was going to have cake!

I didn’t even take time to change my clothes, but jumped right to my task. I was an athlete running a race and the clock stopped for no one. My family fended for themselves…I ate a half-cooked hot dog over the stove, vigilantly guarding my precious cakes.

While they cooled, I tried to temper chocolate. Tempering chocolate gives it a snap and glossy sheen. It’s accomplished by heating, cooling and reheating to specific temperatures, dependent on the type of chocolate you have. Normally it’s done over a double-boiler. I do not have a double boiler. I have a pot, a bowl and a very thick oven mitt, which made it awkward to hold the candy thermometer…which I later discovered, only starts measuring at 200F, a full 95 degrees higher than I needed. I think I successfully melted and smeared chocolate to make shards in an overly-complicated way, but I got it done and without injury. Just in time for Big Guy to arrive.

He was here 15 minutes. Long enough to open gifts, question the assorted piles of cake littering the counter, and give his mama a big hug.

After he left, slightly discouraged and incredibly weary, I poured a hot cup of tea and sat down to watch a video on how to cut this pointless cake.

They should have been round.

So I watched a video on how to make a minecraft checkered cake. At least it’s square. Defeated, I asked Hubby to help cut it. He was “happy” to help. We didn’t have toothpicks, so we had to use bamboo skewers. We managed to use them only on the cake, not each other. I ended up with something resembling finished product in the video, just fewer layers and wider borders. Who was I to complain? My kitchen was covered in red, pink and brown crumbs, and my kids’ birthday was over. I tossed the cake in the freezer and curled up in the fetal position on the couch.

Monday.

A day late.

I slathered homemade chocolate icing on my frozen brick and did my best to decorate it.

I NEVER want to look at cake again.

 

Baking with English Breakfast Tea

Tags

birthday, chocolate, cupcake, food, humour, tea

Last Monday I celebrated my birthday, and what better way than to bake a cake, with tea!!

There are tons of recipes on the internet that use tea, loose leaf or steeped, as an ingredient. But since chocolate is a family favourite, I picked a recipe from lifeisbetterwithtea.com. This cake called for 1 cup of strong steeped English Breakfast tea, which if you tuned in last week, you will recall that Assam tea is predominant in the blend of tea leaves, so it’s bold. I used 2 tea bags in my 1 cup of boiling water, and it was decadently dark!

This cake was simple to make and absolutely delish! I can’t say that using tea instead of water, milk, or cream had any influence on its texture or flavour, but it was certainly moist and very chocolatey…which is everything you want in a chocolate cake.  It didn’t last long!

My decorations were severely lacking, and candles, non-existent…but there would have been too many of them even if I had remembered to purchase some. Besides, what good is it to buy candles when the cost of the candles is more than the cake?

Baking with tea may be little more than a novelty, but who cares! If it means combining two great loves, I’m all for it!

Let’s face it, a good creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people.
– Audrey Hepburn

Here’s the link to the recipe! |Tried any great recipes lately – please dish below.

Bon appetit!

Something…Deadly…?

Tags

birthday, birthday party, family

Something old. Something new. Something deadly? Something blue.

Monday was my birthday, and I discovered something exciting! Math has never been my strong suit, so ahem…imagine my delight when I discovered I was actually turning a year younger than I thought!

My parents drove 4 hours ( or so, round trip) to spend it with me. Big Guy also had the day off. And a friend joined the rest of us ( Hubby and Little Guy too) for dinner. How blessed am I?

We feasted on pizza, because nothing says celebrate getting older like bacon and cheese, and the homemade cake I baked (& will talk about next Monday)!

So what’s old, new, deadly and blue? Some of my birthday presents, of course!

OLD

My aunt gave me this watch and photos, as well as its story.

My Grandmother’s sweetheart (or friend) gave her this watch. He worked in the local bank, but it couldn’t hold on during the depression. The bank closed,  and he moved home to his family’s farm. They kept in touch, but on the night before my Grandmother’s wedding, she sent him a letter telling him that as a married woman, she could no longer correspond. She sometimes wondered what her life might have been like as a banker’s wife?

The time changes, it’s just not the correct time. I still think it’s a really cool piece of history, and I will wear it often.

NEW

Who doesn’t love a new pair of shoes?

Little Guy gave me a new chair for my back porch, and I already have a stack of books for my summer reading.

DEADLY

Big Guy was the most creative this year, and has his Mama’s security and health at heart. When the zombie apocalypse hits, I’m ready!

BLUE

I have to give Hubby credit. He patiently trailed me through the mall for 2 hours on a Friday night, so I could look for “something special” for my birthday. It wasn’t easy, but in the end I chose a blue striped nightshirt from Victoria Secret.

This summer, I’m going to relax on my back porch in my comfortable chair, wearing my oversized nightshirt and my sexy shoes. My watch won’t tell me the time so I legitimately lose track of it…and if anyone messes with me, I can flash them a smile…and my zombie killer blade.

Welcome year 46!