Chocolate Cake

My second post today! Scroll down for a project I posted earlier.

This post is a response to Diecut Diva's request for favorite family recipes. If you post a recipe on your blog and then add a link in her comments section you are eligible to win this.

This recipe is my husband's and son's absolute favorite cake. It's a snack cake so it is meant to be eaten sans icing. It also uses mayonnaise instead of eggs. You would never know the mayonnaise is in the cake, all you taste is moist, sweet chocolate cake. I know the recipe by heart.




Chocolate Snack Cake

1 cup cold water
1 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix water, mayo and vanilla. In another bowl, combine cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Add sugar to mayo mixture and stir until sugar is blended. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture and stir until moistened. Pour cake batter into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes* or until a cake tester shows clean.

*My oven typically runs hot so I do not bake the cake for more than 20 minutes. Overbaking will give you a dry, tasteless, crumbly cake and that would ruin the loveliness of this moist dessert.

If desired, sprinkle with some powdered sugar for a nice decorative effect.

Notes

Now with all my excuses behind me I've started doing some handiwork again :) Here is a notebook I made for a friend who just had surgery.



It's a plain composition book that I wrapped with a brown paper bag quite some time ago, so the paper isn't quite as tight and nice as I would have liked it. The paper used is from my scrap pile so I have no idea of the brand or the particular names for the colors (like marigold or sunshine yellow).

I do know the tools I used :) For the butterfly I used the QuicKutz butterfly. The grass or sea (if you think like my husband) was cut using EK Success Dotted Wave border punch. The sun was cut with my Spellbinder Classic Circles, then edged with Stampin Up Pumkin Pie classic ink. The letters were die cut from Cuttlebug's Olivia Alphabet. They are kind of thin and can be hard to work with, but I like the elegant look they give. The flower is a layered Martha Stewart Daisy punch, and the center is Doodlebugs Sugar Coating glitter in Bumblebee topped with a bit of Diamond glaze. And there you have it!

SUCCESS!!!

I am officially done with my reorganization! I have to tell you it feels really good to have that out of the way. I received my cabinet on Monday and have everything in it that was in plastic bins. So, here are some pictures of my space:





The space still has clutter and I don't think I will ever be fully rid of it (unless my house burns down) but I'm really happy with this.

And just for fun, here is a favorite movie character next to my computer monitor. Can you guess who this is?