Do You Like Chocolate Cake?!! Organic Dark Chocolate Cake To Die For...

I can't see chocolate cake without thinking about the "Chocolate Cake for Breakfast" comedy routine by Bill Cosby. If you have never seen this, please check out the video above. Whenever I see chocolate cake, I exclaim "Chocolate Cake" just like the 4 year old he is talking about...


When I got the recipe for the chocolate cake above, I was super excited to try it, since I had not made a chocolate cake in awhile, since it is organic, and since it is pretty straight forward so I can make it without a lot of planning ahead. I always have the ingredients on hand. Plus, my three year old can help me. We made this for our friend Kim's birthday last week, and again today for my mother in law's birthday. When I asked her what her favorite kind of cake is she told me that "all cakes are my favorite, but if I had to pick one it would be chocolate". ME, TOO! We are so excited to have them visiting us from Ottawa... being able to make her this cake was, well, the icing on the cake.

PS She LOVED it!

Organic Dark Chocolate Cake

1/2 cup organic, fair trade cocoa (I used Cocoa Camino)
hot water and organic milk (see below)
1 cup unbleached organic flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp organic butter
1 cup organic sugar
1 free range egg yolk
1 tsp real vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a 1 cup measuring cup, put the cocoa powder and add enough hot water for the powder to dissolve while mixing it with a fork. Then fill the rest of the cup up with milk.

2. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda, mixing well.

3. Cream butter and sugar together using an egg beater, adding egg yolk and continuing to beat for one minute. Stir in vanilla and cocoa milk, then combine with the dry ingredients. Mix for one minute. Turn batter into a buttered 8 x 8 pan.

4. Bake for about 35 minutes or until cake tests done. Place on a cooling rack in pan. Once the cake has cooled completely, turn it out onto a plate.

Just FYI, both times I baked this cake the middle sunk lower than the sides...

Chocolate Icing
1/4 cup organic butter
1/4 cup organic, fair trade cocoa (I used Cocoa Camino)
1/4 cup organic milk
1 cup icing sugar
1 tsp espresso, ground
1 tsp real vanilla extract

Melt butter; add cocoa, milk, sugar, and espresso. Bring to a boil and cook for 3 minutes. Add vanilla. Stir rapidly for about 2 to 3 minutes. Spread over cake.

These recipes were adapted from Planet Green.

Everything's Amazing, Nobody is Happy

That about sums up our current state of society. This guy is right on. Enjoy a laugh!

This Is What I Feel Like Everyday...

I am pretty sure that many of you can relate to this video, made by my very good and talented friend, whom I often speak of here, Karina Bergmans.

Robyn The Great and Her Art-O-Mat Video

artomat 6.2
Originally uploaded by robayre

Robayre, whom I meet sometime ago online, in a group called Create-A-Day, which is now EveryDayCreate, is one of the most inspiring artists I know. Not only is she prolific, her interests are all over the map, truly someone I can relate to. She is creative, and talented, and she blogs like a mad woman. I wish I had the time to accomplish a tenth of what she does. I think she is an idea collector, like me, so she always has something she has found out about that she will share with other artists, and I would love to participate in all of this cool groups. One of the ones I strive to be a part of SOON, is Art-O-Mat. I blogged about it here.

I love the whole concept behind Art-O-Mat, not to mention their trademarked phrase "Kerplunking Culture Since 1997". I can't think of a better thing to do with old cigarette machines, then to dispense miniature works of art. Robyn has been making these works for a long time now. She even came up with her own method of making mini stretch canvases to create her original paintings, which are inspired by her collages, on. She was recently named the artist of the month! That is pretty great since there are 400 artists in 10 countries working with Art-O-Mat.

Now, if all this was not cool enough, or I should say if Robyn were not already cool enough, she went and made a video about Art-O-Mat! I am totally in awe. It is soooooo fun and perfectly explains what you can expect when you pull the lever on a Art-O-Mat machine. Check it out! And thanks to Robayre, for letting me feature it here.

Women in Art

A friend of mine sent me a video link today. I have seen it before but I could watch it again and again. It features 500 years of women in art. I wish I could get it to show up here so you could click and view but until I figure that out just click here: http://miraulam.multiply.com/video/item/38

It has been nominated for a YouTube award. It was created by eggman913. You can vote for it here: http://www.youtube.com/ytawards07 Good luck, Eggman, I hope you win!!