She: Caaaake

Well, Mark still hasn't gotten off his keister and finished his blogs, so I'm posting this one. Preparations for Mark's b-day were a little harrowing. I went ALL out and got him a whole Star-Wars ensemble for the table, including streamers and all...and forgot wrapping paper. So I got creative with wrapping some presents with grocery bags...
Owls are birthday-ish, right? Well, in between cutting bag parts, I made cakes. Yes, CAKES, plural. I made a lemon cake for Erika (her bday too) and a chocolate almond cake for Mark, upon request. I've given a lemon recipe before, so I'm gunna dive into the chocolate one here, which is a little different, since its a Vegetarian chocolate cake...not because I don't eat dead things, I do (hope I don't offend, shrug), but because Vegan/veggie chocolate cake TASTES better. More chocolate, less sugar. So here we go:
Chocolate Cake Recipe
3 C. flour, 2 C sugar, 6 tbs dark cocoa, 2 tsp b. soda, 1 tsp salt, 2 C water, 3/4 c. veggie oil, 2 tbs vinegar, 2 tsp vanilla. Put into 2 nine inch cake pans, bake for 40 mts at 350F. I actually did one cake pan, and made cupcakes that I cooked for 20 mts with the other half of the batter. That way I could give away some more of the desserts...the icing is the chocolate ganache I previously mentioned in the toffee cupcake recipe, with the vanilla switched for almond extract (not neccisary, but gives a...almondy flavor that was requested) and then sprinkled sliced almonds ontop. You can see the process from un-iced to decorated here. Mark ate his entire cake ALONE. The rest of us had cupcakes.