twig and sparrow: Probably the Best Cake You Will Ever Taste!

Looks like our very hectic weeks are coming to a close! Both of my older 'babies' have graduated from preschool and kindergarten and we have already begun our summer vacation. I am still poring over this last sentence, as I cannot believe that this milestone has come up already. It sounds so cliche, but it is so very very true. I think about this all the time, and the way that time has just flown by really, honestly, just blows my mind.

I met my husband eleven years ago and we are going to celebrate ten years of marriage this October (I know you did the math!). I remember so well our early years, er I mean, months of dating. I remember what I wore on our first date to the Bluewater Grill (happy to say the dress still inexplicably fits?), our first camping trip together, what he wore when I met him, our cross-country trip across the US, and first time meeting his family in Hawaii. That was a decade ago. Seems like last Tuesday.

So here comes the scary thought: ten more years are going to fly by. My son will be SEVENTEEN. You know, college prep, SATs, applications, girlfriends (shudder), and a host of other things I have absolutely no clue about right this minute. Many a tears have rolled down my face just at the mere thought of this. I remember one night when he was three months old. I was rocking him and staring at him, and I remember thinking that this tiny little young stage he is in is so fleeting. And here we are now, my growing boy with enormous feet, paling around with his friends, and telling me about his crazy-intense interest in jets and airplanes.

The good thing is that all these small moments are seared into my memory. In between all of the necessary duties in everyday life as a parent, we can still find these precious patches of memories in our everyday lives. We need to remember to stop and take a minute to look into their eyes, give them dinosaur-sized hugs and enormous, juicy kisses.

So where's the cake recipe? I posted this on Facebook today and I got a couple of requests to share the recipe. I found it on another great blog by Alicia Paulson: she is this amazing, creative multitasker and artistically talented in embroidery and crafts. She also bakes the BEST chocolate cake with the BESTEST EVER frosting. I have used it for most of the kids' b day parties. What I love best about it is that it works like buttercream and has no shortening. It uses flour and milk as a base and gets whipped up with butter and powdered sugar to create this sinfully heavenly culinary dream that for some reason people call merely 'frosting'. It's a party in your mouth, people.

OK, so I did make a little modification. I layered some caramel in between all these layers of chocolatey goodness. Look, I even drizzled some on top in a neat little cross-hatch pattern, wow! I loved how all the caramel mess just oozed out of the sides. The messier the better!

PS= the caramel was supposed to be homemade, but apparently it is really hard to make caramel. I had the candy thermomoter and everything, and I let it go a hair of a degree higher in temperature because the dentist called (is this a sign to reconsider the caramel???) and I got distracted. So long story short, the caramel came out of a jar from the store :(

Here's the recipe, courtesy of Ms Paulson and her fantastic blog, rosylittlethings.typepad.com:

Hershey's Deep Dark Chocolate Cake
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Hershey's cocoa (I use either the regular or the Special Dark, whatever I happen to have)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup steaming hot (brewed) coffee
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9" round cake pans.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla; beat on medium speed of electric mixer for 2 minutes. Carefully stir in boiling water and coffee (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks and cool completely.

Cloudburst Frosting
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup WHOLE (it has to be whole) milk
1 cup softened butter
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups sifted confectioners sugar
In a small pan, gradually add the milk to the flour, whisking them together into a totally smooth mixture — you don't want any lumps here. Simmer (barely) until thick over low/medium heat, whisking constantly so you don't get any lumps. (Do not walk away from the stove for even a minute — trust me. If you do get lumps, just push it all through a sieve.) You want it to be the consistency of pudding. Remove from heat and let it cool completely but NOT in the refrigerator (Mom says if you put it in the fridge it won't work). Let it cool for a few minutes, and then push a piece of plastic wrap down on the surface of the mixture (so a skin doesn't form) and let it sit on the counter for an hour or two or three until it's completely cool. Cream together the butter and almond; add the confectioner's sugar and beat on high for several minutes until it is very fluffy. Add the milk/flour mixture and beat until it is super fluffy. The frosting will sometimes appear to separate when you add the milk/flour mixture, but just keep beating it on high until it whips up into smooth, fluffy clouds.