how we weekend

This weekend was made of up everything a weekend should be made of. 

sleeping in

sunshine

a perfect trail run through the stickiest of mud

firing up the grill

staying out until sunset

bike riding

skate boarding

(both resulting in skinned knees)

staying up too late

adorable Littles dressed up for church

an Easter feast!

egg hunting

chocolate cake

kite flying over snow melting on mountains...

this weekend just made me so very excited for summer to get here so we can have weekends like this every week. over and over again.

I think my favorite thing about this picture of my and my girl, is that under our easter-eggy sunday best we both have the grossest bruised and bloody legs.....we play a little hard around here.

and.....last but not least....The Cake. 

As of Saturday night I still wasn't sure what I was going to make for dessert. I knew I wanted to make a cake of some kind, so I just started making chocolate cake and let it figure itself out from there. 

I wanted to keep it simple, so I opted for one layer, and ended up just doing simple chocolate whip cream to top it. very easy.

Chocolate Cloud Cake
named by The Children
this cake could easily be made into two layers, but I poured the batter into one 9" round pan, and then had enough batter left over for four cupcakes.

Chocolate Cake

2 ounces semisweet chocolate

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup boiling water

6 TBS butter, melted

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup sour cream

2tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Line bottom of one 9" pan with a round of parchment paper. Butter paper, and sides of pan.

Finely chop chocolate and in a bowl combine with boiling water and cocoa powder. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

In a bowl add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat butter and sugar until combined. Add eggs (adding one at a time) until thickened slightly and light colored (about 3 minutes). Slowly add buttermilk, sour cream, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture, beating until combined well. Add flour mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined.

Spoon batter into pan, Fill about 3/4 full.

Pour remaining batter into cupcake liners.

Bake cake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 25-28 minutes. 

Cupcakes should be done in about 13-15 minutes.

Let cake cool for about 5 minutes and then remove from pan onto cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting. 

Chocolate Whipped Cream

this is easy to play around with and you can add more cocoa/sugar depending on how sweet/chocolaty you want it.

2 cups whipping cream

1/2 cup powder sugar

1/4 + a few TBS unsweetened baking cocoa

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Beat with electric mixer for a few minutes until you reach a thick whip-creamy consistency 

Spoon onto cake. 

Dust with cocoa powder.

If you want to add a few chocolate pieces for decoration (and eating of course) melt down some good semi-sweet chocolate and spread it thinly onto a piece of parchment paper. Pop it into the freezer for a few minutes until it has set back up. Break it in to pieces and VWALLA!! fancy cake topper.

enjoy!

How was your weekend?