Calvin's Chocolate Layer Cake

Calvin turned 6 last week.  

He requested a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  Of course.

MMMM chocolate cake.  

If you've been following me you know I've lost 35 lbs and am now back to my pre-baby size.  I've become a Health Coach with Take Shape for Life and am loving all my new energy and enjoying a healthy lifestyle.  

I believe that part of having a healthy lifestyle and maintaining a healthy weight is to live a little occasionally.   

If you never allow yourself any indulgences you will find it difficult to maintain it for life.  Which I plan to.  So I allow myself a glass of wine now and then and a piece of cake on birthdays. (if you are in a weight LOSS phase... you should do your best to hold off on indulgences until the maintenance phase)

In the past I'd make a HUGE 9" double (sometimes quad) layer cake.  It would take my family a week to get through it all. 

So here is my NEW way to indulge but keep myself on track.  

Make the cake smaller!  

I'll pause for you to grasp my genius.

Did you know a standard 9" double layer cake is supposed to serve 15-20 people? 

A 6" double layer cake serves 6-8 people.  And you can use ANY cake recipe... just half it.

So now you can indulge in home made birthday cake.  Once.  And then get back on track with out the other half of the cake staring at you each time you open the refrigerator door.

(btw:  I ordered really good 6" cake pans w/ high sides and removable bottoms on amazon.com)

Chocolate Cake

6 T unsweetened cocoa powder (the best you can afford) + extra for pans

6 T super hot water

1 1/2 C flour

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t baking powder

3/4 t salt

1 1/2 stick unsalted butter (12 T) + extra for pans

1 C + 2 T sugar

2 large eggs, room temp

1 T vanilla extract

1/2 C sour cream, room temp

Preheat oven to 350.  Butter & coat w/ cocoa powder 2 - 6" round cake pans. 

Mix together in small bowl cocoa powder & hot water until smooth. Set aside.

Mix together flour, soda, baking powder & salt in medium bowl.  Set aside. (I'm a big believer in getting everything lined up first)

Melt butter and sugar in saucepan over low heat. Stirring the whole time.  Remove from heat, beat in electric mixer (with whisk attachment) for 5 minutes at medium.

Add eggs, mix.  Add cocoa / water mixture, mix.  Add vanilla, mix.  Add 1/2 of flour mixture, mix.  Add sour cream, mix.  Add remainder of flour mixture, mix.

Divide between the two pans.  Tap gently.  

Bake for 40m.  Cool in pans for 10m, remove and cool completely on wire rack.  

Wrap in plastic wrap and chill over night if possible before frosting.

Chocolate Ganache Frosting

1/2 lb bittersweet chocolate

1 C +3T heavy cream

2 T corn syrup

Put chocolate in large heat-proof bowl.

Bring cream and corn syrup to simmer over medium heat.  

Pour over chocolate.  Let sit for 5 minutes.  Stir with spatula until smooth.  

Refrigerate until cool.  Using beater attachment of electric mixer... mix until light an fluffy.  This only take a few minutes.

You will use this frosting immediately.

Assembly

Get a cake plate.  Put a tiny blop of frosting in the middle (to hold the cake in place).

Now.  Cut the 2 cake layers in half horizontally to make 4 cake layers.  If you do this right out of the refrigerator it should be easy.  Then simply layer, cake, frosting, cake, frosting, etc.  Only use enough frosting between layers to very thinly cover the cake.

Then do your crumb coat (super thin layer of frosting to seal in the crumbs)

And the final frosting.  This is frosted very thinly btw.  Use an offset spatula to smooth.  For a super smooth surface dip the spatula in hot water... shake off and then smooth.

Put the rest of the frosting in a plastic bag w/ a pastry tip in one corner (you'll have to cut off a small corner for the pastry tip to go through)

Do whatever detail you want.

Now enjoy your single slice of cake!  It's a special occasion after all.  And the best part is you won't have tons of left overs to call to you tomorrow when you get back on your weight loss track!

Enjoy!

Read my Getting Healthy story.

If you are interested in learning more about getting and staying healthy please contact me!

Jennifer Z. Lewis

 Certified Health Coach

Web site: teamlewis.tsfl.com

Email: teamlewishealthcoach@gmail.com

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Road Trip

So we have kinda a big road trip coming up in less than a week.  585 miles.  I'm trying to come up with things for the kiddos to do.  

This was one idea.  

I have it printed out on white 8 1/2 x 11 paper

It was my mom's idea (of course).... I just did the "making it" part.  Cleaver huh?  The kid will look for this stuff and either cross them out when they see them or make marks next to the pictures to keep track of how many.  

It'll be one of the many tools I use to get through the 9 hour drive spread over 2 days with 3 kids 7 & under.  

Do you have any ideas?

Please share w/ me.

Pretty please.

Family Dinners..... what happened to them?

Remember before you had kids when you had all those lofty ideals about how YOU would do things different... or things you would NEVER do with YOUR family?  I, like you, had a huge list of those things.  And while some of them I've managed to stay true to, some I was a dismal failure hit by the reality of WHY parents do them...

One of the things I never could understand was the staggering statistic that less than half of American families eat one meal together daily.  I scoffed at that.  PLEASE I said... I'm a stay at home mom... I have high standards... we will NEVER be THAT family. 

BOOM!

What's that you say?  That was me falling off my pedestal. 

In spite of my best efforts this week... my family of 5 was sitting at the dinner table together 2 times.  GASP.  I know right! TWO.  It's appalling.  How did this happen?  It is called EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES.  Plain and simple. 

The husband is in an MBA program which takes him away from the dinner table 2x a week.  The older 2 boys are in Martial Arts training which takes them away from the dinner table 2x a week (thankfully I've synced those to be the same 2x).  The oldest kiddo is in Little League which takes him away from the dinner table 1x a week.. and he had 2 games this week which took the rest of us away from the dinner table 2 more times this week.  That is 5 nights of activity. 

What's the solution?  No extra curricular activities?  That's one idea... but that isn't the right solution for us.  Leave it to my mom.... the answer is so simple.  Eat breakfast together every day.  I love her. 

So while our schedules are in the hectic season I will make a point of all 5 of us sitting down at the BREAKFAST table at the same time. 

The other idea she had that I LOVE was to make the dinners we do have together special occasions.. with special food that everybody loves and dessert.   I do have 3 boys after all... all it takes is some dessert to make a memorable meal.  Thanks mom!

Which meal do you all eat together? 

My First Chicken

I baked a chicken.

Big deal you say? You do it all the time?  Well this was my FIRST whole chicken.  Yup. First. Ever.

GASP!!! 

What you say?  You… who makes your own tortillas and pasta and bread from scratch.  You who reverse engineers recipe’s so you can change them? 

Yes.  Me.  My 1^st whole chicken.  Of course I’ve done turkeys but honestly I didn’t really want to do a whole chicken.  We preferred white meat.  I didn’t like getting my hands slimy.  Blah blah blah. 

The more I read and the more into cooking I get, the closer to my food source I want to be.  I want to know where my eggs came from.  Are there antibiotics in the milk?  Is the food local?  Is it seasonal? 

Kids Bedtime Box

We have a problem at our house.

 We have dark hallways.  And when you have dark hallways coupled with little boys who have overactive imaginations you have a problem.  We’ve ended up with imaginary monsters and pretend ghosts.

 

Here is what we are trying.

A BEDROOM BOX

 The idea is to empower the boys to use their imaginations against their own imaginations.  Read that again.  Empower the boys to use their imaginations against their own imaginations.

I know it is sort of quick and dirty and I am sure some of you could do nicer versions.  But we were desperate here…. I have 3 children and there is 1 of me.  Which means there are often times situations where 1 little boy is left to put on their jammies all alone….. far far away from mommy… past dark doors.  You get the idea.

In it is….

1) A squirt bottle filled with Magic Water

(this is to mist into any space the kids think might have something scary in it)

2) A flashlight which shoots Magic Light (to light dark spaces)

3) A favorite book (to read to take their mind off the scary stuff)

4) A spare blankie (for comfort)

The boys are excited.  We talked about each item in the box.  We prayed for bravery.  And so far it is working.

I'd love to hear if you have any other ideas you've used to help  kids with their night time fears!

What to do with all those LEGO's

I have boys.  And boys have Lego's.  I've been searching the internet and questioning my friends for what to do with all the Lego's.  And we are at the beginning... my oldest is 7.  There is more to come for sure.  My system of "organizing" was a pile of various sized plastic containers with lids. That had a lot to be desired.  I didn't like the pile in my family room for starters but most importantly it wasn't accessible for spontaneous play. 

Then I had an idea.  A good one.

What is it you ask and why is it so great?  The idea is so simple really.... I bought THIS from Ikea. The real genius is what we did TO it.  We put casters on the bottom.  Yup... big wheels. That is the idea people.  So simple right?

And the best part?  It works.  Obviously it stores the Lego's.  We bought mostly shallow drawers so the kids can see the parts.  But it easily MOVES where the kids want to play.  Often they play on the kitchen table... it moves there.  Or the dining room. Or the family room.  Or the living room.  It moves to the middle of the room so they can play on both sides.  And the top is the perfect height for a little "assembly desk".

So quick go make one for your house too! 

Here is what we did.  And by WE I mean my husband who is our in-house handy man

First of course you have to assemble the furniture from Ikea.  Then head to the hardware store.  Buy 4 big casters.  4 pieces of wood, some screws and liquid nails.

 Darren glued the wood to the 4 corners.  Then pre-drilled holes for the casters.

 Then screw them in.

Here is shot of what it looks like.

And here are some pictures proving it works.  The kids LOVE it.  And USE it. 

Happy playing!

Baby's First Cold

I recently went to a baby shower and was racking my brain to come up with an original baby gift.  

I know I know... I could have bought something on the register.  But I wanted something ORIGINAL... and USEFUL.  Not that onsies aren't useful but for some reason I felt that I wanted to pass along to THIS new mom some knowledge. 

New moms have such a learning curve to climb and they have to do it while hormonal and sleep deprived.  I'm also a strong believer in setting up regular "play / coffee" dates with a more experienced mom.  Someone you can ask questions, cry around and who will hold your baby for a few minutes while you sit.

Anyway... back to the baby shower.  Here is what I came up with:

Baby's First Cold kit

Composting

I try to do good.  I buy organic milk, fruits and veggies.  We recycle.  We use low VOC paint. 

Nothing too out there.... mostly mainstream type stuff.

We've talked about composting for years.... but that is where it stopped.  Just talk. 

Thank goodness we live in Portland Oregon, one of the most sustainable cities in the country.  A front runner in most sustainable technologies, building codes, etc.

Those who live in the city limits have been forced to slow the speed in which we toss every tiny thing into the garbage.  We've always had weekly garbage pick up along with recycle bin pick up and by-weekly yard debris pick up. 

As of October 31st we were given a choice of moving to either every other week garbage pick up or 1 time a month garbage pick up.  Once again.... that is going from weekly pick up to bi weekly or monthy.  Big change.

We were issued a compost bin and told to divert all food scrapes to it rather than the garbage.  Then empty the compost bin into the yard debris bin which moved to weekly pick up.  So this is it.  Not exactly pretty.  Doesn't go with my "decor".

I decided if we were going to "do this" lets... "DO this".  So I went on line and found this:

And I bought bio degradable bags to line it with.  Because the alterative is just too gross for me.  My husband thought it looked like a tiny garbage can sitting on our counter.  I guess he's right... but it is better than the plastic one for sure.

Overall I'm super happy with this change.  I wish we had made it earlier.  I am glad we are doing it now.  I was worried we wouldn't be able to cram 2 weeks of trash into 1 garbage can but we did it!  I'm proud of us.  We have 3 kids, one still in diapers and during those first 2 weeks we had a birthday party w/ presents.  Not too bad.

The best part is that it has changed the way we think.  Before I throw anything away I first think... can this be recycled?  Can it be composted?  Can it be broken down so SOME of it can be recycled or composted?  

It's a Halloween Party!

So I just threw a little Halloween party for 30 of my closest friends / kids.   Well due to some being out of state, sick, etc.... we ended up with a total of 20.  It was a blast.  

DECORATION:

The kids and I started by decorating the house.  This was fun.  We strung spider web every where.  And notice the little mice?  We cut out a bunch and taped them along.  Cute huh?

 In the spider web we hung fake critters.

 Creepy.

Our candy bowl and "thanks for coming" gifts.

GAMES:

I took a few of my husband's golf balls and turned them into eyeballs!  Eewww right?  Anyway we gave the kiddos some spoons and had them do an eyeball relay.  That was fun! 



 We did the classic pin the nose on the pumkin.  We made this pumpkin out of one of those orange "tableclothes" you find at the dollar store.  Here is the "after".  They did pretty good right?

The biggest hit was the simplist.  Get some toilet paper and a few dads.  Then let the kids turn them into mummies.  Super super super fun.

DRINKS: 

I did the standard stuff.  Soda, juice, etc.  Then for fun I did a Spiked Cider.  Super easy.

 Spiked Cider:

4 cups apple cider.

1/2 C dark rum

1/2 C cinnamon schnapps

* mix, serve over ice.  Garnish with apples tossed in lemon juice. *

FOOD:

I did 2 savory snacks (Popcorn and Macaroni & Cheese) and 2 sweets snacks (Cupcakes and Apple Cake).  I had them at "stations" throughout the house so people would keep mingling and moving. 

The first sweet was CUPCAKES.  I used Martha Stewart's classic Yellow Buttermilk Recipe. Which is awesome.  It holds up really really nice.  For the frosting I used MS's Swiss Meringue Buttercream only without the cream of tartar.  I mixed 1/2 of it with 2 oz melted milk chocolate to make a light brown frosting.  The other half I mixed with random food coloring until the color looked "halloween".

 I let the boys decorate them.  We drew mouths with food gel and put on candy "eyes".

The other "sweet" was an APPLE WALNUT BUNDT CAKE.  Which was amazing.  Here is the recipe I started with.  I didn't change too much.  I omitted the walnuts since 2 of the kids coming have nut allergies.  This is the "cake station". 

1 of the savories was cups of popcorn.  Just plain air popped popcorn.  Turned out to be a big hit with the kids.  I put them into two different places. 



The second savory was home-made Macaroni and Cheese.  Which I failed to take a picture of, sorry.  But I do remember how I made it so here you go:

HOME-MADE MACARONI & CHEESE:

*Cook 1 pound macaroni, drain, rinse, set aside.

*Warm in microwave or in pot on stove 5 cups whole milk.

*Grate 10oz sharp cheddar, 4oz smoked Gruyere, 4oz American (from the deli - this is actually important for it's amazing melting / blending quality)

In large stock pot melt 1 stick unsalted butter until bubbling.

Add 1/2 c flour.

Mix 1-2 minute.

Slowly pour in while whisking all 5 cups milk.  Stir constantly while cooking until thick and bubbly (5 mintues). 

Take off heat. 

Add 1/2 t salt, 1/4 t pepper, 1/4 t smoked paprika.

Add all the grated cheese.  Mix with whisk until smooth.

Add macaroni, stir.

Serve.  Yum.

Happy Halloween!

So that is how I did it this year.  I'd love to hear about any Halloween party tips you have to share!