Godiva Chocolate Bar Cake
When we have absolutely nothing else to do Maya and I head to Pottery Barn Kids for some free entertainment. As you can imagine, this happens quite often. With puzzles, pretend kitchens, fake food, cash registers, dress up tables, drawing tables and tons of other kids to play with, why would we go anywhere else?
A few weeks ago, when I was at my wit’s end (again), I took Maya to the Manhattan Beach location so she could run wild play. As she joined forces with another kid (whose parents, incidentally, looked as exhausted as I felt) to clean a pretend room with a pretend vacuum, I browsed through the book section and found this cute kid’s cookbook:
For a change we left the store with an actual purchase! Pottery Barn can finally show some ROI from the Din Family.
We cracked open the book this morning, and after much debate we decided to make the “Made-In-The-Pan Chocolate Cake.”
According to the recipe, this cake doesn’t require any bowls because you can mix everything in the baking pan. With an easy clean up, this recipe was already a winner in my book.
We started following the recipe but then decided things were looking a little too plain. So how does one dress up a chocolate cake, we wondered? With more chocolate, of course! We broke into our stockpiles of Godiva chocolate (thank you Grandpa for giving us a box every week), chopped a selection of chocolates into pieces, and threw them into our masterpiece.
And now, without any further ado, may I present you with a recipe for the best tasting cake you will ever have in your life:
Godiva Chocolate Bar Cake
1 1/4 cups unbleached white flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup water
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
5 Godiva chocolates
In an 8″ X 8″ baking pan, mix all the dry ingredients together with a fork. Add the liquids to the pan and mix well. Chop up four of the Godiva chocolates and add to the mixture. Wipe the sides of the pan and add the last chocolate to the middle of the cake.
Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes.
While the cake is baking feel free to make a mess licking your fingers. And the measuring cups. And the counter if needed.
Take the cake out of the oven and let it cool for 30 minutes:
After the cake cools, cut a piece straight from the middle where the heart melted. Why? Because that is the best piece of the whole cake.
And enjoy!
Something Out of Nothing
I have a friend who is spectacular at making something out of nothing. She invited me to her house once for leftover spaghetti and meatballs and I swear her dinner of leftovers was nicer than anything I could have done with an unlimited budget. It’s all about the little touches she tells me…the sprig of rosemary as a garnish or the pieces of basil on top of the fresh mozzarella. One Valentine’s Day she decorated the table with little pink and red chocolate hearts and had baby pink roses garnish her serving dishes. It probably cost nothing but looked like a million bucks. But my friend, you see, is an artist in all aspects of her life and she can visualize things that myself, a numbers person, just can’t see.
When I have people over I really do make an attempt to make things look nice. “Presentation is half the battle,” my mom always tells me. The loose translation of that is, “No, Ameena, you cannot expect people to come to the kitchen and serve themselves.” The entertainer in me wants to listen to my mom. But the lazy side of me wants to serve out of my best Calphalon.
The crazy thing is that even my dad is better at presentation than me. My father is a stickler for silverware, serving dishes, and soup bowls. Give him a paper plate and he will freak out. I’ve never seen anything like it. One might even call him obsessed. I guess growing up in India without proper tableware will do that to you.
Right before my wedding (about 100 years ago) my dad decided to rush out and buy a new set of dishes for a party my parents were hosting. So one Saturday he and my mom drove down to the Mikasa store and spent five hours debating the merits of the classic white set versus the pattern. They went with the white, bought 100 place settings, and after that one wedding event those dishes went into storage and haven’t been taken out since. Apparently my parents haven’t heard of this crazy, revolutionary concept called dish rental.
Anyway, I’m not sure what happened to my sense of hospitality but I clearly didn’t inherit it from my parents. As I get older though, I realize that these are the types of habits Maya is going pick up as she grows up. Since Maya’s dad often eats his oatmeal out of a giant glass serving bowl and her uncle drinks his protein shakes straight out of a blender, it is pretty clear to me that I need to make more of an effort to offset the damage of my uncouth family’s habits.
So lately I have been looking for nicer serving pieces. Someone like me needs things that are foolproof! During one of my half-hearted searches, I came across the most beautiful collection from Rosanna, Inc.
Picture from http://www.rosannainc.com
Picture from http://www.rosannainc.com
I love these dishes! All of them. How can anything look bad if presented in these? They look like something Anthropologie would carry but frankly, I haven’t been very impressed with the quality of Anthro’s housewares thus far. I hope I can find these at a store near me to check their quality before committing to a purchase.
Okay Mom, there may be hope for me yet!
The Good and the Bad
The Good – During my lunch break I took some time to educate myself on how to be a better parent:
The Bad – I was at the Dentist during my lunch break. Again.
The Good – Yesterday’s rain was a distant memory and the weather was beautiful today:
The Bad – It was about 85 degrees in our condo this afternoon which means that our thermostat probably needs to be replaced soon.
The Good – Maya and I took a trip to Borders to buy her some books:
The Bad – Despite my better judgment I succumbed to buying a book authored by an MTV reality TV star.
The Good – Maya and I paused for half a minute to think of others. We picked up some reading material for Ali:
The Bad – Ali has been borrowing his dad’s car since his lease went back in the middle of last year and now he has 275 more vehicles to be indecisive about.
The Good – Maya kept busy in the bathtub for 40 minutes so I could organize a few of my shirts in rainbow order, on my new velvet hangers:
The Bad – My four-year-old likes to put yellow Tupperware on her head:
The good: Maya goes to bed at 8:30.
The bad: It’s only 8:03.
While I'm not going to win Mother/Wife of the Year Award anytime soon, I haven't killed anyone yet or shot myself in the head. And that, my friends, is how I calculate success these days. 
FANCY THAT FANCY THIS 
