Yummy Dessert!

Dark Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Coffee Cake

I have been searching for dark chocolate chips for the longest time. Being that there have been so many studies that have shown dark chocolate to be good for you (in moderation) why wouldn't they have dark chocolate chips for baking? I even looked for dark chocolate baking bars, figuring I would either shave the chocolate or chop it. Then finally, I came across just what I was looking for.

I was so excited to finally see these in a store, I couldn't care less how I was going to use them. I looked for a recipe that would be worthy of a holiday dessert and found the following recipe which I altered to include the dark chocolate chips.

This recipe is a little hard to spread, the dough is quite thick but the cake is moist and it is a chocolate lovers dream! Not too much chocolate- just enough. The cinnamon gives it a nice touch also! I made this in a large pan (8x13).

Ingredients
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream (I used fat-free)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour ( you could mix whole wheat and all-purpose)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a 9x13 pan
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and soda. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and 1 cup of the sugar. I did this by hand with a wooden spoon. If the butter is soft enough, it will be no problem.
Add the eggs, sour cream and vanilla and mix well.
Add the flour mixture and combine well.
The batter WILL be thick.
In a small bowl, combine the chocolate chips, 1/4 cup of sugar and cinnamon. This is your filling.
Using a rubber spatula, spread half of the cake batter in the pan. This will be tough, it does not need to be evenly spread-just make sure it covers the bottom of the pan.
Spread half of the chocolate chip mixture on top. Use a spoon or all the sugar and cinnamon will be left in the bowl.
Top this with the remaining batter. You can drop it by spoonfuls and spread it - not worrying about covering all the chocolate.
Finish off with sprinkling the remaining chocolate topping over the batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Allow to cool before cutting into pieces. Absolutely delicious!

Mimi's Birthday Cake

Mimi   Halloween (age 3?)

Mimi's cake

Nothing fancy but personal. Mimi loves spiderman. When Mimi was little (see picture above), she carried around a little Spiderman action figure. Spiderman went everywhere with her. Mimi grew up but she still loves Spiderman.

To make her cake special (and this was so last minute), we made a cake in a bundt pan. Colored the icing Spiderman colors and made the spider on the side of the cake.

Mimi was thrilled. As the next pictures show, 28 candles are a lot of candles. Mimi couldn't make it to her birthday party due to snow that was heavier in the middle of the cornfield that she lives in so we had a stand-in and through the use of a cellphone, sang Happy Birthday and cut the cake.

The stand-in was the Melanie doll that Mimi gave me one year as a gift. It was a Barbie-type doll that she dressed in an outfit typical of something she would wear and then she covered the back of the doll box in a collage of pictures of Melanie through the years. Brilliant and creative! Love it!!!

You do not need to be a master baker to personalize a birthday cake. Even last-minute, you can create a personalized birthday cake.

(the next day Mimi was able to have a piece of her birthday cake)

Mimi is the one with the huge smile and shades on. Happy Birthday Mimi!!!!