On Cake Tasting

ninainthechiUncategorized%s Comments

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Why, why, why when people talked about wedding planning, no one talks about cake tasting? After a few rounds of mixing and matching carrot, coconut and vanilla bean cake with salted caramel, raspberry, Kahlua and cream cheese butter cream and chocolate ganache, it’s all I am going to talk about.

Oh, you’re getting married?

I went cake tasting!

When is the big day??

Cake tasting! Let me tell you!

We’re only one session into our pre-marital counseling but I bet session 2 is all about how cake tasting is the single best thing you can do for your marriage. Because, well, cake.

It was such a fun way to spend some time. And to have my parents there to partake in the aforementioned sugary glory, in the most darling cake themed place ever? Best. Day. Ever.

This message was brought to you by the opposite of clean eating and GP’s cookbook…all about balance, folks.

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Smitten Kitchen’s Red Wine Chocolate Cake

ninainthechiUncategorized%s Comments

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I have been feeling really under the weather this weekend. Blame it on the on and off snow we are still getting or the hot tolerable/cold temps, it’s been stuffy nose, copious amounts of tea, napping central over here. After digging into takeout lasagna from Rose Angelis, a leftover bottle of wine was staring me in the eye. I was feeling so badly that drinking it sounded terrible (tough times, I know) but I could cook with it.

10pm sounds like as good a time as any to bake a chocolate cake, right?

Smitten Kitchen can do no wrong and this red wine chocolate cake is no different. I hate red velvet cake, a ton of food coloring isn’t my jam, but the red wine gave it a red color and flavor that was a perfect balance of bitter (from the wine) and sweet (the chocolate) so it was basically what red velvet cake wants to be when it grows up. And given the late hour in which the cake was baked, the easiness of the recipe was a big plus.

Also a plus? Cake with coffee for breakfast.

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Big

adminUncategorized%s Comments

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Today was a big day- big learnings, big opportunities, big sharing, big ideas. Big and bold and…energizing. Exciting in a way I haven’t felt about my life or career in quite awhile. It pushed me past this ceiling I’ve felt up against, totally self imposed, and got me thinking about possibilities I cannot even conceive right now. Because the world is really that big and amazing, right?

And there is nothing like ending your day with a piece of cake so big that you can’t even deny that you’ve been playing small. Gibson’s practically tailor made this cake-analogy for me.

It feels really good to close out this little month in a big way.