Chocolate Cake and Baby Brontosaurus!

Howdy!

First item on the agenda: I am in LOVE with the "yummy breakfast" keychains, and there are also "yummy desserts" and "yummy donuts"! Anyway, there is a chance to win them here: http://www.mypapercrane.com/blog/?p=4319
And it's easy, you just have to leave a comment saying what your favorite dessert is! Check out MyPaperCrane's blog/etsy shop for some adorable toy creations! (my felties are jealous :( ;)

Well, I decided to share with you a cake recipe! Because I have been enjoying this particular cake Far too much all week (cake for breakfast...dessert...breakfast again...dessert post-lunch...) and want to distribute the temptation. It is a chocolate cake recipe from Rose's Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum. The recipe in her book is titled "Chocolate Layer Cake with Caramel Ganache," but since my "inspiration" for making cake in the first place was an over-abundance of cream cheese and powdered sugar (=cream cheese frosting!), i left off the ganache, and it ended up just a single-layer chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. So. Chocolate Cake:

Mix together, then let cool to room temperature:
1/2 c plus 1 T cocoa powder
1/2 c boiling water

Whisk together, in separate bowl:
2 large eggs
3 T water
1 1/2 vanilla

In bowl of electric mixer, combine:
1 1/2 c plus 1 T cake flour
1 c sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Add, to dry ingredients, and beat for 1 1/2 min:
8 T unsalted butter
2 T canola oil
cocoa mixture.

Finally, in two additions, add the egg mixture, beating for 30 seconds and scraping down the bowl in-between additions.

Pour evenly into a 9" pan greased and lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 F for 30-40 min. Let cool, and frost!

(The reason I chose this recipe is that it didn't use milk/sour cream/1/2 and 1/2...all those dairy ingredients cakes often call for that are most likely absent from my fridge.)

Next, I have to point out that I did NOT make that latte above. :( It is one of Isaiah's from Doubleshot. SO BEAUTIFUL AND DELICIOUS i wanted to share it! I never learned how to make that design. poo.

And, in picture #3: Can you spot the furry Izzy bottom? silly girl was playing in my closet.

And finally, i actually drew a couple quick illustrations for today's poem! It is a cautionary tale (don't bite balloons) concluding with a shout-out to all dentists (do floss!):

Baby brontosaurus bit
Into a blue balloon.
It popped, and he shot skyward,
Falling back--into a swoon.
His mother couldn't find him--
She despaired that he was dead,
And destined to be dinner,
Stuck between two slabs of bread!
"A brontosaurus sandwich--it's not RIGHT!
We're near extinct!
Oh, WHO would be so heartless?
Why, oh why, won't people THINK?!"
But soon, her son was stirring;
He woke, ravenous and cross.
He ate the poor, limp, blue balloon
(Which he found difficult to floss.)