Weekend Treats

This last weekend I decided to make a chocolate cake.  I was inspired by my husband and his box cake.  He made this strawberry flavored cake with yellow frosting.  When his chemical filled cake was complete he seemed very proud of his masterpiece...and of course I had to remind him that its a boxed cake which is pretty hard to mess up and the frosting was already made, food coloring and preservatives and all.  I told him that if he wanted REAL props from me, he would have to make one from scratch, frosting and all.  Then it occured to me that I have only made one cake from scratch EVER!  So naturally I had to make one.  I created a recipe from a mixture of recipes I found via Google.  I'm not sure if this is exact since I am going by memory but I believe I usesd: 2 cups of flour, 1 Tsp of salt, 2 tsp of Baking Soda,  2 cups of sugar, a little over 3/4 cups of Ghiradelli unsweetened cocoa powder, 3 eggs, 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, 1/3 cup of Teeccino (instead of coffee), 1 tsp of vanilla extract, 1 tsp of raspberry extract (So good), and 1/2 cup of butter or one stick.  To make the frosting I used one 4 oz bar of Ghiradelli unsweetened baking chocolate melted over a double broiler or in my case a glass bowl sitting on top of boiling water in a sauce pan..lol.  Seperately I melted butter (I believe it was one stick or 8 tablespoons) and beat in Heavy whipping cream (I don't remember how much..sorry) 1/2 cup of Ghiradelli's cocoa powder and a tsp of vanilla extract.  When completely mixed, remove from heat and stir in melted chocolate and 3 1/2 cups of Powdered sugar.  Continue mixing until thickened and refrigerate until completely cooled.  For the layering I used Raspberry Preserves and home made whipped cream frosting!  As I promised I let my daughter ice her first cake and I think she did a great job for an 8 year old!!  She came up with the strawberries and whipped cream heart on her own!

On Sunday we made Honey Caramel Popcorn.  I normally hate caramel corn, but I have to say this was delicious!  This was our first time making popcorn on the stove from kernels and I have to say that it was extremely easy!  For the caramel sauce we used two ingredients: Butter and Honey!  I didn't want to use corn syrup as most recipes suggest so after some time of browsing I came to this recipe!  It was very good and of course my husband and kids ate it all up!