Is it my birthday? what happens after my birthday? Is Daddy going to share his cake? Is Cora going to share her cake? Will there be balloons? Will we sing "Happy Birthday"? Do we blow out the candles? Can I blow them out too? when is it my birthday? is there going to be a party?
And on and on. whew. His isn't for four more months. That's gonna be a LONG time...
I love to cook, and I actually love to bake as well. Though I have really not done either of those the last 3.5 years since we entered the land of childrendom. That is partly due to the fact that these kids just do NOT agree with following our plan of having children who eat crazy wild things like we do! And partly because with a lot of things I like to cook and bake that are involved, you can't just stop them and go change a dirty diaper.... or break up a fight.... or pull Cora off the top of the piano... So I've had to just NOT do them... and our diet has SUFFERED, I tell you. SUFFERED.
Can I just say that I am stinking TIRED of cooking phenomenal food only to have their noses turned up at it?? It would be one thing if I cooked nasty, dry, tough, unpalatable delights. But I cook GOOD food. Ug. [Vent over.]
At any rate, every day with Cora is getting better and easier, so I decided to be brave and tackle an historic favorite dessert of ours for Shawn's birthday. Years ago before the land of childrendom, yet again, I grew herbs.... because I love to cook, remember? One of those herbs was mint. And if you've grown mint, you know what happens. It spreads and you have a lot of it. Any Good Eats fans out there? Oh how I adore Mr. Alton Brown. Up until 3.5 years ago, I KNOW I'd seen every episode. Period. I have his books. And I've lusted over the DVDs... many times. In his tea episode, he discusses simple syrup. And his is infused with mint. So I made some with my abundance of mint. His recipe makes a TON. So THEN I needed a recipe to eat my mint simple syrup on... So I was perusing Food Network, as I used to do.... (oh, fond memories), to find recipes to use my mint in. And that's how I discovered this.
The Dark Chocolate Peppermint Pattie Cake. Heaven.
It is involved, but it is so very good. I LOVE mint and I LOVE this cake. Hard to believe it has to have been at least four year since I've MADE it. Time is flying.
I thought in light of this joy class that I'd document the process of making it. Since Nathan was going to HELP me make it, right? yeah, he was a LOT of help. Lasted for about 0.5 milliseconds and he was happily done. Oh well. But I had fun thinking of how to create the montage of our day and the cake. These are NOT superb, but it is fun to see them all together, isn't it?
I hope this inspires YOU to give this cake a try. If you like mint, you will NOT regret it.
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Oh, my goodness! Does that look GOOD!
ReplyDeleteAnd you know this already I think, but I am a total Alton Brown fangirl. I too have the books. We watched all the episodes until finances forced us to give up cable. Sarah talks about "Mr. Brown" like he's a close, personal friend. Sadly, Hulu does not have Good Eats. They have lots of HGTV stuff, but no Food Network (at least not full episodes). So I peruse Good Eats: The Early Years again to try to prevent myself from getting withdrawl shakes. :-p
I may have to check out this recipe...looks completely divine.
Ah to be able to cook like I once did! I know the feeling though Carey...never enough time to do what I once did a lot of! It's getting better though with each year that passes since my son is an eating machine and will pretty much eat anything these days.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, Alton Brown....my fave on Food Network. He's like the perfect blend of nerd plus chef and I LOVE it!
And this cake? When can I come over and have a slice...looks SO good!
I just came across your blog and just love it! I love how well you document your families life, I aspire to be that good! The last 6 months I have majorly neglected my blog and you have inspired me to get it up and going again :)
ReplyDeleteWow does that look yummy...seems like a perfect cake to make during the Summer! Sure looks like you had a good time making it too. :)
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