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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Sweet Kitchen Tips 1

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Like any good cook, we have our successes and our unsuccessful cooking experiences.

And like any REALLY, SMART cook, we hide those failures pretty fast.  How many of you out there have scratched a lopsided cake by throwing it in the trash, as you are pulling out the ingredients for a second time around? Because, you know, “the kitchen is not the boss of me and you are going to get it right!”

Show of hands? Anyone? *Cough, cough* - yeah, I thought so.

So, while we do not like to speak of our failures, we do like to learn not to repeat them.  Us, home cooks (and I’m going to take a guest that even the most famous chefs too) learn pretty fast from our mistakes. And if anyone out there is like me, we make lots and lots of notes in order for that fiasco not to happen again.

So this is where this post comes in.  Throughout the years, I have kept the back of my cookbook blank of recipes and instead use it to write tips, and clever solutions for common kitchen problems.

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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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