Labels: baking, chocolate, dessert

Labels: breakfast, pancakes

The ingredients

Boy, did I have such grand hopes for this cake. The finished product however, did not turn out quite like I planned. It started off fine but just kinda went downhill. I managed to salvage it for the most part. The initial mixing and baking went quite well. I especially enjoyed the time honoured baking tradition of licking the bowls. The batter was rich, creamy and oh so chocolately.

It was halfway through the baking stage that things began to go awry. The top began to crack which I think is the source of the cakes downfall. I let it cool for a whole hour before trying to cut it in half to fill. But the fissures in the surface of the cake caused a shocking disturbance. Tragically, there was an avalanche and the sides of my cake collapsed. My beautiful cake fell apart. I tried to cut it in two but ended up with almost a dozen pieces. I could have just pronounced it dead right there, but goshdarnit, I wasn't going to give up. I decided to spread the mascarpone filling over the undamaged bottom half and try to jigsaw the broken pieces together using the mascarpone as a kind of glue base. Nice idea in theory but the puzzle was much to difficult to reconstruct. I had to choose another plan. I considered cutting the edgges off and making a very small cake, but this would not do either. I formulated a better plan to salvage my baked good. I cut the base of the cake in half and placed one half on top of the other. This created half a cake. I then took two of the largest broken pieces and sandwiched them together with the mascarpone filling. I now had two half cakes. In fact, if you look at the cake on the right hand side, it looks just like a perfect half eaten cake. I collected all the broken bits in a bowl.

Looks aren't everything - they still tasted fantastic. My final step was icing the cake. This would play a major role in its beautification. Unfortunately, my bad luck did not stop here. My concentration was not only thrown off by my previous disaster but I had also accidentally written eggs instead of egg whites in my recipe. It took me about 5 minutes of mixing sugary yellow goo to figure out my icing was never going to become fluffy. By this point, I had run out of eggs and could not mix a fresh batch of icing. I attempted to create a different kind of icing using the whipped cream and chocolate. My luck would again run me afowl. After melting the chocolate, I got distracted with something else. The chocolate hardened and I could not mix it with the cream. I was officially out of eggs, whipped cream and chocolate. Dad was nice enough to pick up some more chocolate for me. Traditional icing using dark chocolate it would have to be. I mixed the melted chocolate with icing sugar and carefully smoothed it on the cake, attempting to disguise its inadequacies. I completed my cake by sprinkling grated white chocolate on top.

Labels: baking, chocolate, dessert

Hollywood, CA - Cheezy fries at Johnny Rockets at Hollywood & Highland. The ketchup smiley face was cute. I still find American cheese strange. This cheese wasn't that bright coloured, but what's up with orange cheese?

Niagara Falls, ON - The thickest, fluffiest pancakes I've ever had! So good. It was all you can eat, but I honestly couldn't fit more than one plateful. I'm not 100% sure but i think it was at the Continental Pancake House.

Niagara Falls, ON - Eating icecream in Canada. One of my life goals achieved.

San Francisco, CA - Mmm.... IHOP, how I love you. This was from my first IHOP experience. Chocolate pancakes completed with chocolate chips and cream. Very yummy. I wanted more.

Tijuana, Baja California - Quesdillas at a Mexican restaurant on the Avenida Revolucion. Simple and tasty. I'm so very proud of my Mexican eating experience.

Bevery Hills, CA - You know a dessert is big when it's about the size of your head. There was no way I could finish this brownie sundae at the Hard Rock Cafe at the Beverly Centre. It was delicious but I think the thing I liked most was that it seemed bottomless. I hate when desserts are over too quickly.

And this what I looked like at the END of the trip.

Labels: American, breakfast, dessert, fast food, Mexican, pancakes