Since Addie came into my life, there have been some major changes around here. And not just more late nights and an exorbitant amount of dirty diapers.
I have definitely changed.
Skirts and yoga pants have assumed new roles at the front of my closet. Even though I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight, I am definitely not back to pre-pregnancy muscle mass. I am...how you say...soft. And strangely bigger in the hips than ever before. All in all, none of my shorts and only some of my jeans fit. But who's going to wear jeans when it's 80 degrees outside? Not I. So I wear lots of skirts.
I listen to classical music and, more often than not, can be heard humming nursery rhymes I haven't thought of since I was a young girl. I hum them because I feel silly singing what I am sure are the wrong words. (What in the world comes after "and if that diamond ring don't shine, Mama's gonna buy you a..." Valentine? Copper mine? Silver dime?)
If women or children in a movie are mistreated in any way, including being separated, I can no longer watch that movie. Silent tears turn into full-on crying as I rock Addie and hold her close for comfort. I am now well aware of what "mama bear" really means.
It is common for me to shower until well into the afternoon. Yesterday it was 8:00 p.m.
Despite my childhood vow to forever hate chocolate cake, I have been craving chocolate cake like crazy. I've made it twice in the past week and I plan to make it again before the week is through. As I said in yesterday's post, i think that in order for chocolate cake to be edible, it must be fudgy and very moist. And, because my hypoglycemia is back in full force, my chocolate cake can't have sugar in it. At least not much.
So I decided to experiment. If you've noticed, I don't really bake--ever--so this has been a new thing for me. Cooking is easy to modify according to your tastes and nutrition beliefs because there's no chemical reaction involved. But baking? That's a whole other world.
I took chocolate cake number one directly from another baker's blog to see if cake made with applesauce and grated carrot was even worth it. It was. The result was more of a snack or breakfast cake than a dessert, which is fine with me! What little kid didn't beg their mom to let them have cake for breakfast?
The one hold-up is the fair amount of brown sugar involved with this recipe. Next time I'll try it with agave or another natural sweetener; the cake wasn't especially sweet even with the brown sugar. Only use cinnamon if you like how it tastes when paired with chocolate (I realized I'm not too keen on it, though both are exquisite when eaten separately).
Another thing to note is that the cake won't rise to fill your whole bundt pan. It's as if the cake itself is helping you to only have small portions.
So belly up to the bar with a slice of chocolate cake and a glass of milk, and let me know what you think! It's especially wonderful if you take a bite of cake, a bite of blackberry, a bite of cake, a bite of blackberry...
Chocolate Snack Cake (aka Chocolate Cake #1)
from Yammie's Noshery
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup applesauce
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup shredded zucchini or carrot
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat oven to 350ยบ.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon (if using), cocoa powder, and salt. Add the applesauce, egg, vanilla, and zucchini/carrot and chocolate chips (if using) and mix until just combined.
Pour into a greased bundt cake pan and bake for about 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean (for me this was 25 minutes).