HCB: Chocolate Feather Bed

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I’m surprise that I had the right frame of mind to bake our HBC choice cake this past weekend.  Why? Because my mind was not fully engage in baking pans, measuring cups or stacking delicate layers of chocolate cake between light whipped ganache.

Instead my mind was thinking of a certain lakeside cabin, kayaking trips, hiking thru the woods, wardrobe combinations, airline tickets, car rentals, weather projections, balloon festivals and how my spotty French was going to get me thru a day trip in Montreal.

In 5 days, we are out of this hot hell we call Florida and flying to the north for some serious vacation-lazy time.

But, after 3 weeks of fruit dessert surplus, we were back in business with none other than a major chocolate overload choice, and I just could not pass it up.

The picture of this cake in the book is one of my favorite, if not THE favorite.  It looks rustic, rich and decadent and a bit of a show-stopper – my kind of cake.

The catch?

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Calling all cooks! {and giveaway}

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I have been thinking of jump starting my “savory” cooking side of the blog.  If you have been visiting for a while, you realized that sweets make more of an appearance than savory dishes around these parts. One of the reasons for this is the fact that I participate in different baking clubs and they keep me in line when it comes to being accountable in posting my sweets creations.

Unfortunately, the only thing that keeps me accountable in savory cooking is Tom and the fact that we have to eat dinner every night - mmm, ok, maybe every other night – for the most part we live off cereal, going out to restaurants and our level of laziness that day.

I need to change that, because just like I love baking, I love cooking just as much, if not even more.  So, I have been thinking the only way to do this is to make myself accountable as well and to accomplish that (and make it fun) I been itching to start my own little savory cook-along club.

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ABC: Apricot-Almond-Berry Buckle

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Remember a couple of weeks ago when I sang the praises of the yumylisious Lemon-Scented Pull-Apart Coffee cake?

The one that I have baked 4 6 times and made me embrace my inner conflicted relationship with yeast and rolling pins.

Well, I was so impress that I ran out and bough Flo Braker book "Baking for All Occasions.  Because I knew that if she could pull that off with a coffee cake, what else can she pull off?

Afterwards, I got a shout out from a fellow HCB baker, Hannaa from Hanaa’s Kitchen who along with her friend Wafae launched a monthly baking project called the ABC of the Month, which stand for “Avid Baker’s Challenge of the month”.  The concept is to choose a book and to bake from it and post the results on the first Tuesday of each month.  Guess which book they choose to with in 2010?

uh, yeah...I joined them faster than you can type – “I’m in!”

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