Quote for a Snowy Day

“When one cannot go away one can travel in spirit by means of books. Tell me what you read & like, & perhaps I can send you a key that will at least open a window through which your eyes can wander while the faithful hands & feet are tied by duty at home.”

-- Louisa May Alcott, Letter to Maggie Lukens, February 5, 1884

My Bakerella

One of my favorite pastimes is baking.

I owe my love for baking mostly to my mom and my sister, Janel, who taught me everything I know about baking. In fact, Janel was the one who introduced me to Bakerella, the website that inspired this post.

After the tradition of Bakerella, I thought it would be fun to write a post about some of my recent baking projects. To begin, we'll have to skip back to this summer-- June 15 to be precise.

June 15 is my parents' anniversary. In honor of the occasion I decided to make them a Black Forest cake (coincidentally also one of my favorite cakes!) I found a really yummy chocolate cake recipe at Allrecipes.com. (I knew it was a winner when I saw that 1660 people had rated it 5 stars).

Next I had to get all the ingredients.

First I needed a box of chocolate cake mix (Devil's food, of course! Who would waste time with regular chocolate?) and some chocolate pudding to make it moist.

Next I needed chocolate chips. Do you think this is enough?





I varied slightly from the original recipe by making two circle cakes instead of a bundt cake. This way I could make a nice round cake.