Dad's Fantastic German Chocolate Cake

 

Ta-Da!  The second german chocolate cake that I've ever made.  This one is a bit more traditional than the first (although not quite as fun).  It's got coconut/pecan icing in the middle and on top, plus chocolate icing everywhere else.  Oh, and the white icing too.

Unfortunately*, I didn't put a "dam" of icing between the layers, I just smeared on the coconut stuff, so the icing started to ooze out.  That's what you see in the pictures between the two layers of cake, by the way.  Not only is this the second time that I've made a German chocolate cake, but it's also the first time that I finally got to use my new 9" cake pans.  I must say, they are far superior to the other pans that I had; nice and level and good edges... it was worth the spending of my money! :)

Everyone except my crazy brother James loved the cake.  I still don't see why he doesn't like chocolate cake...  it's just a darn shame that I'm having to make a lemon cake for his birthday (which is tomorrow).  I was very happy with the outcome of the cake, even though I wasn't able to put as much time in it as I wanted.  Oh, and it says "Chris and Vic" because my grandpa's birthday is two days after my dad's birthday and they often celebrate together.

The only other baking that I've done recently is to make these sugar cookies.  I just found some dough in the freezer and decided to make them...  I'm really not sure how old it is, and so I haven't actually eaten any of the cookies.  But my dad and siblings have been enjoying them, so that works for me!  And now we have more freezer space for something that we will hopefully actually use in good time...

Next on my list is James' birthday cake which is, as I said earlier, lemon.  Ew.  It's not that I have anything personal against lemon cake, it's just that lemon isn't chocolate and there lies the problem.  But he's helping me make the cake, so that's a lot of fun!

*Don't ask me why, but "Unfortunately" is a very, very difficult word for me to spell.  I can spell "fortune" but that's about it.  I always forget that there's an "a" in the word or something...  Anyway, that's why they made spell checkers, right?

I'm Back!

I realize that it's been about a month since my last post but rest assured that I have not forgotten my lovely blog or my faithful readers!  I've been uber busy the last month and it hasn't helped that I had the flu this week.

Because of my school work, homecoming, and the flu, baking hasn't been a top priority recently.  I did make my Dad and Grandpa a german chocolate birthday cake, and I'm in the process of making my brother's cake (his birthday is Monday), but that's about it.  Oh, and there were some sugar cookies...

But like I said, I've been swamped with school assignments (did I mention that my English teacher assigned us 7 essays to write about Frankenstein-- in two weeks?!).  And being student council president, I was in charge of homecoming, but thankfully, despite the rain, everything turned out OK there.  What didn't turn out OK was how sick I've been.  It's been horrible!  Even since I had that stomach virus or whatever at the beginning of the month, it's been one thing or another: sinus problems, throat problems...  And then I got the flu!  I couldn't talk for 2 days and you do not want to know how many tissues I needed to use...

All of that is behind us now and I hope that November will present me with more opportunities to bake, as well as the time to do it!  And, of course, the time to blog!  I've definitely not had enough to sit down and type like I'm doing right now (although I should be writing those essays).  I promise that in the coming days, you'll see those sugar cookies, that chocolate cake, and James' birthday cake show up on my blog.  And maybe some other treats too.  Did anyone say Halloween cupcakes?

So thanks for being patient with me and I'll see you soon around the 'blogosphere'!

Cheesecake and Cookies and ...Cheese?!

Finally, yesterday, I was able to make Mom's belated birthday cheesecake!  Although, I really should've made it on Monday or Tuesday because I felt aweful yesterday. :-(  I'm not entirely sure what's wrong with me, but I still feel bad today.

We ate it today... By we, I mean my family members because part of that sickness thing is that everything is making me nauseous.  Which is unfortunate, because everyone really liked the cheesecake.  Although the texture was wrong (Dad blames the waterbath; I'm not sure why.) that taste was very right.  Except it needed chocolate chips, apparently.

Also yesterday I made chocolate chip cookies after taking some medication and a nap.  I felt well enough to make some thins for my AP Statistics class.  I would say that those cookies were a success.  They were huge, by the way.  But everyone (or almost everyone) loved them!  Yay!  After feeling so icky, I really wasn't up to baking (I know! How out of character for me!) but Enrique did volunteer me to make them and I couldn't let down my classmates...

...I did let down my dad though, because there weren't any leftovers for him.  I keep telling him that if he would just buy some more chocolate chips (dark chocolate) and granulated sugar (and I think we need unsalted butter too) then I would make a batch of cookies just for us.  I should probably add parchment paper to my shopping list...

And the last order of business today:  The Iron Cupcake: Earth challenge.  No, I didn't win the basil competition, but Mama Baker's basil mango yummy cupcake did.  However, the challenge for October is CHEESE.  Cheese?!  I have no idea what I'm going to make...  Cheese is so varied and different; there are a bajillion different varieties it seems like...  I will definitely be putting my thinking cap on for this month!

Mom's key lime pie and her new diamond/sapphire ring from Dad (and James' new mood ring).