Musical Monday: Johnny Mercer - My Sugar Is So Refined

Love it!

Too Big, Too Fast

My boys are getting so big...

When did that happen and how do I make it stop?!?

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

I have an odd love for zucchini.

Mostly in baked goods though because they become so ca-razy moist!

Zucchini Loaf? Yes.

Zucchini Muffins? Yes!

Chocolate Zucchini Cake? Yes Please!!

Another awesome thing about zucchini...

It's cheap!

And if it's cheap in rural Newfoundland chances are good it's cheap where you live.

Do you know what else is great fun about zucchini?

You can also call them courgette's! How fancy does that make zucchini sound now?

So instead of sharing a super awesome Chocolate Zucchini Cake recipe with you, perhaps we'll call it a Chocolate and Courgette Cake! mmmm... sounds like we need tea and fancy dishes for that delicious cake.

So as not to intimidate you away with fancy dishes I will stick to calling this a Chocolate Zucchini Cake. 

My mom used to make this and it's always been a favourite of mine.

Have no fear though, you can't taste the little green miracles of moisture, truth be told they don't have much of a taste raw anyways...

Now, that could all be different of course if you start calling them courgettes!

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

1/2 cups butter

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

4 heaping tbsp cocoa

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 cups zucchini, shredded and dried on a towel

1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used chocolate chips instead)

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a 9x12 cake pan.

Cream together butter, oil and sugar in a large bowl. Add eggs, vanilla and sour cream/yogurt.

Sift flour and cocoa together 3 or 4 times. The better the flour and cocoa is combined together the better. 

Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Beat into egg/sour cream mixture.

Add zucchini and nut/chocolate chips and fold to combine.

Bake 50 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Ice with chocolate icing once cool.

Chocolate Icing - I wish I had an exact recipe to share with you here but I just combined about 2 tbsp butter 3-4 cups icing sugar, a heaping tbsp of cocoa powder and a few splashes of milk into a food processor and pulsed until it was the right consistency. Too little milk the mixture will come together in a dough like clump, too much milk and it will look shiny and slightly runny and dry with a royal icing like finish.

365 Day Project

At the beginning of every year people tend to set goals... it's a pretty well known ritual...

The last few years I have noticed that the blog world always seems to go a bit wild at the beginning of January declaring projects to be completed daily over the following year; it's often called a "365 Day Project". 

(my favourite one can be found here)

I don't often follow the crowd with too many things, but I have been itching to get on board with a project for awhile now.

The trouble I was having though, is what do I want to commit to doing for 365 days that I wouldn't grow to hate by about day 54...

So instead of doing a 365 day project I'm doing a 12 month project.

I've decided that this year (I'm still going to try and complete my little project by December 31, 2012) my 12 month project is to...

dum dum DUUUMMM!!

complete 12 blankets.

I'm not limiting myself to sewing them or knitting them or crocheting them... just to make a blanket a month.

Hurray!! I feel like I have something to focus on now, and it's always nice to have something already planned when those creative ruts come a calling.

Musical Monday: Neil Young - Old Man

This weekend was one of those remarkably productive ones in our household.
We were able to clean the entire house (and keep it clean I might add!), do 7 loads of laundry, I baked some on Saturday, I put together half of the top of a quilt, my mister started painting our front entrance AND I snuck a nap or two in there as well, and that's just to name a few things we managed to accomplish.
Sometimes I'm just so proud of us!
It seems Neil Young has been my go to guy in music for the past little while, especially when I'm baking or cleaning.
Thought I'd share the love as his greatest hits was playing in our house most of the weekend.

A laugh

I adore cakes... and cupcakes... and muffins.

They all make me happy!

I saw this clip awhile ago and it made me laugh, so I thought I'd share it.

Have a great weekend!!

Chocolate Chip Squares

I don't have a lot of memories from my childhood. 

Not because I had a horrible one or anything, I actually had a fantastic life growing up; I just think I have a crappy memory.

One thing that I do remember though is these Chocolate Chip Squares.

My mom worked full time so it was always something special when ever baked goods were made. This one was an easy family pleaser she pulled out of her sleeve every once in a while.

Truth be told, I want to say we had these a lot... but given the quality of my memory there is a chance we didn't have these as often as I think we did and I just remember each occasion with an extreme amount of excitement.

Either way, these are tasty and super easy. 

You make them in the microwave people!

5 minutes to whip them up, 5-7 minutes of baking time and then eat eat eat... perhaps you should allow some time for cooling, but either way a yummy treat in less then 30 minutes!

THAT is what I'm talkin' about! 

Chocolate Chip Squares

1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter, softened

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

In a small mixing bowl cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla, mixing well.

Stir together flour, baking powder and salt and add to the creamed mixture, blending well. Stir in 1/2 - 3/4 cup of the chocolate chips and nuts (if using). Spread into a greased 8 inch square dish. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips.

Microwave (on high if you can) 5-7 minutes, rotating dish half way through cooking time if your microwave doesn't have a turn table, until a toothpick comes out clean when tested.

Cool and cut into bars.