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. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray 8-inch-square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
- 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. 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. 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:
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. 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. 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.
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!
WOW – that cake looks amazing! Nothing beats homemade cakes, in my book. We’ve gotten out of the habit of doing them in our family…it’s been at least a couple of years since I’ve made one!
I want so badly to like grapefruit. 🙁 I think it’s the only fruit (or one of) that I don’t like! But it always looks so delicious.
I think you should have baked 3 cakes and mailed one to me! 😉 Looks gorgeous!!
Yay for the B+. The grapefruit looks the best out of everything. I Love grapefruit.
I’m actually bummed that you didnt have pizza… I was going to make some this week and was I would gather inspiration from your Pizza Friday Post, haha!
I love the cake recipe wanna try it
We had pizza for you guys last night! We were going to make tacos, but then I realized we had no tortilla shells, so we did a thin crust pizza with chicken taco toppings instead! it was delicious!
I’ve heard Portillos chocolate cake is incredible, so I’ve purposely avoided ever trying it! 🙂
My husband loves Buffalo Wild Wings — glad you could splurge a bit and still do well for the day!
Have a super weekend, Biz! Sorry no pizza last night!
I noticed it was lighter outside yesterday too but thought I was just being too hopeful.
The cake looks delicious! We’re big portillo’s choc cake fans too!! J’s sister foregoes buying it by the slice and gets the whole damn cake!!
I think you should be ok onion wise at a chili cookoff. Aren’t they crazy purists against any chunks and beans?
Wings, fries, and chocolate cake?? Sounds great to me! Portillos at one point had a chocolate cake SHAKE. DANGER!!!
Yum, chocolate/coffee icing (I guess that would be mocha) sounds fantastic!!!
Funny about you missing out on veggies for dinner – back in the old days, I would have insisted that potatoes are veggies, but now I know better (and don’t try to fool myself, lol).