And another:
She is about 1 month old now. Growing each day in size and beauty. Meanwhile, the rest of the family is adjusting to having Little One in the house. Daddy and I, having been through the newborn boot camp before, have fairly easily fallen into a routine that allows Krista what she needs and the sleep we need. But we weren't the ones we were concerned about. Though we wondered how Elli was going to take Krista, she has impressed us with her loving attitude toward her baby sister. Case in point, since taking the picture above, Elli will periodically ask us, "Can I hold Baby Sister and take a picture?" She has such a good heart. And Krista seems to like having Elli around. She will just stare at Elli and listen as she "reads" (i.e., makes up a story based on the pictures) books to her. I have no doubt that Elli will be a fabulous big sister who will be a loving guide for Krista.
Hopefully this will carry over into the kitchen some day. But for now, Elli is my one and only sous chef. Though we haven't cooked much together for the past several weeks, she still catches me in the kitchen working and grabs for her steps, wanting to help...and eat...wherever she can.
The one exception I have made to the one-and-only-sous-chef rule is for Daddy. With a newborn and preschooler in the house, we have to make the most of the one-on-one time we can find. We have started a challenge for each other: every week find one thing we can do together. This week was my turn, and my first thought went immediately to food.
I knew Daddy would not hate the idea of a cake, but I wanted to put a spin on it. I told him we were going to make a cake without a recipe -- just wing it completely, relying only on our experience and our sensibilities. Apparently he did not trust our sensibilities, although I'm not sure if it was mine or his he didn't trust. Hmmm. I digress.
So, we came up with an alternative. We would use the recipe for a chocolate cake on the back of the baking cocoa can but we would invent a variation on the cake. Our variation was to do a "stuffed" chocolate cake.
Base Chocolate Cake (from Nestle Tollhouse)
2 cups flour
2/3 cup baking cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup water
Grease 13x9 pan. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture alternately with water. Spread into prepared pans. Bake 25-35 minutes at 350.
We kicked off the cake baking session when both girls were napping. We read off the ingredients from the cocoa can. Baking soda. Baking powder. Flour. Eggs.
"We totally could have done ths without a recipe," I told him. "We would have nailed it." I don't think I convinced him.
We tag-teamed mixing the ingredients together, and our creation began to smell as good as it looked.
"It looks like it has pudding in it," I said.
"It smells better than a box mix," he said.
Our plan was to put half the batter in the pan...
...then add the "stuffed" layer, which comprised minimarshmellows and chocolate chips.
Mmmmmm.
Then we topped that with the second half of the batter, carefully pouring and spreading the batter over the marshmellows.
"This smells so good," Daddy said. We both wondered how it tasted.
Where have I seen this before?
We agreed that the batter tasted amazing, certainly better than the pudding-infused box mix. But we were curious how the stuffed layer would work out. I figured the marshmellows would just bake into the batter.
They did, of course, and the chocolate chips sunk to the bottom, thus our stuffed layer didn't really pan out (pardon the expression), but the cake was tasty, and we had a lot of fun making it. Even Elli enjoyed chowing down when she woke up from her nap.
God bless you all. Talk to you soon.
