Martha Stewart's Ultimate Chocolate Cake

If I haven't already mentioned it, I LOVE Martha. When I say love, I mean obsessed. It's a little much. In fact, I just spent about 20 minutes in PetsSmart looking at her new pet line. Everything she touches is gold. The fact that she went to prison and then came back to make her company even stronger makes her that much cooler. With that being said, I hope I have done her recipe justice.

I made this cake for an office birthday party. The birthday gentleman requested chocolate cake with chocolate icing, so I wanted to make it epic. I wanted people to have their veins flowing with chocolate by the time they were done eating a slice. I should also mention that the birthday party gave me a reason to bake other than to just make a cake and eat it all myself....

When I made the cake, I had left over batter, but not enough to make a whole other layer, so I decided to make cupcakes. The whole recipe makes enough for a two layer cake and 3 giant cupcakes. Perfect! Warning: I didn't flour the pans after greasing them, so I had a few near disasters! Both cakes had a crack on a corner, but I melted some chocolate and used it as a glue to put all the pieces in their place. Problem solved!

As it is Sunday evening and I am feeling a little on the lazy side, HERE is the link to the cake recipe. Additionally, HERE is the link to the ultimate chocolate frosting. Wanting to lick your spoon already? I thought so.

Enjoy!

Italian Sesame Brittle

I was lucky enough to be able to take a trip to Italy in high school, and OF COURSE one of the best parts was the food. Little secret here: I could not fit in to any of my clothes when I got home. Oops! Too much gelato for me...

Anyway, I remember trying these and then buying a whole bag of them in an Italian candy shop, and then again in the Duty Free store at the Rome airport! They are great because they are sweet, but not too sweet. They have a subtlety to them that is unmatched in any other candy I've found. On top of everything else, they have a nice nutty tone from the sesame seeds.

I was super happy to find this recipe, from Great Italian Desserts Now, if I could only find a recipe to make the incredible little Italian Baci Balls

Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup sesame seeds (I ended up throwing some black sesames in there for a little extra kick)
1 cup honey
1/3 cup sugar
Shake of cinnamon

1. In a thick saucepan, heat all ingredients together until temperature shows 160 degrees CELSIUS.

2. *Carefully* pour the hot mess of sugary goodness into a pan lined with wax paper (I used 9x5 inch pan).

3. Let cool for 10-15 minutes. Once the mixture is hard enough to cut, but still warm enough to give without cracking, cut into rectangles, squares, or whatever shape you want. Dinosaur shaped? Yes.

***These are great with a REAL, strong Italian cappuccino.
Now, time for me to sit and reminisce...

Cranberry Granola

Contrary to popular belief, granola is actually not very good for you. It's full of sugar, but people think "Oh granola! That's good for me! I will eat 3 cups of it!" It's not meant to be eaten like cereal, bowl after bowl. It's meant to be used in MODERATION (a key word I'm trying to apply to every day life...) to give you some essential fats and complex carbs. Otherwise you're going to load up on the calories and sugars without even knowing it. I mixed this with plain, organic yogurt, just enough to give it texture, and it was something I could feel good about.

Now, on a lighter note, it's delicious! Granola is nice because you can utilize just about anything you have laying around, be it fruit, nuts, grains, etc. I made cranberry because we had a big bag of dried cranberries and a bottle of cranberry juice, but you can really mix it up to use up whatever you have. It's easy and will last. Put it in a ziploc and freeze extras which will last for weeks. Or, as I like to do, share it! Bring it to work, or put it in a nice jar and give it as a gift.

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups rolled oats (NOT the silly instant kind, the old fashioned ones)
1 cup sunflower seeds ( I didn't have raw, so I used roasted, salted)
1/2 cup almonds (or any other nut you have)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp sea salt
1/3 cup canola oil (and extra to coat the pan)
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 cup juice (I used cranberry)
1 tbsp honey

1. Preheat oven to 400 and grease a large cake pan with canola oil.

2. Mix all dry ingredients in one bowl (ingredients 1-7) and set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, mix the final 4 wet ingredients.

4. Pour the dry ingredients into the pan. It should be about 1 inch thick.

5. Pour wet ingredients over the dry and mix slightly.

6. Bake for 45-60 minutes, mixing every 15 minutes. Be sure to scrape the sides into the middle to avoid burning.

Mango Guacamole

Ok, so I have to give credit to my husband on this one. With having Mexican genes, I think he naturally is gifted in guacamole making! He realized one day that he liked avocado (for good reason!) and wanted to make guacamole. He asked for a suggestion, and I told him add mango for the sweet and salty combo. He took that and ran with it! Although I made this batch, he came up with the original recipe. The sweet and salty are amazing with the fatty, nutty avocado. I may or may not have eaten almost the whole batch just now...umm...oops?

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:
2 avocados
1 mango
1/2 large tomato or 1 roma tomato
1/2 lemon
1/2 lime
garlic salt

1. Peel and dice mango. Spoon out the avocado. Dice the tomato. Mash these three together.

2. Squeeze 1/2 of lemon and 1/2 of lime on guacamole. Taste the mixture and decide how much garlic salt you want to add ( I like a lot!).

3. Eat copious amounts of this good stuff with tortilla chips, pita chips, or anything else your heart desires.

Cinnamon Apple Muffins

Here's a little taste of autumn (oh how I miss thee, crisp weather!) in the middle of hot, muggy Tennessee June. These muffins have a great texture because of the chopped apples, and I used my mother-in-laws homemade apple sauce, which also has some chunks of apples. PS, I hate the word "chunk", but sometimes there's no alternative.

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS ------------>
Makes 8 JUMBO muffins!

1. Preheat oven to 350. Either line muffin tins with paper or spray with oil/butter.

2. Peel and chop apples (it took me 2 small gala apples to make 1 1/2 cup chopped)

3. Mix together dry ingredients (the first 5)

3. In a separate bowl, cream together eggs, sugar, and oil. Add in applesauce and vanilla, mix well. Add in apples, and then dry ingredients one cup at a time.

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

OPTIONAL: I sprinkled the top with butter and brown sugar before baking to give it something a little special.