chocolate frosting recipe: 2013

19 Şubat 2013 Salı

Your Year Not Off to a Great Start? It's Not too Late!

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I absolutely love this program and I want to share it with you again because my January so far has been in the dumps. I started out January 2nd being sick and have dealt with sick kids (heard of influenza?) since right after Christmas. So I wondered if maybe some of you hadn't been able to start your year out exactly as you had planned.
If so, it's not too late to jump into this fantastic program and start feeling fabulous!

Faithful, Fit & Fabulous

Filled with humor and “I can relate” life experiences, Faithful, Fit, and Fabulous is the ideal 8-week life boost that will refresh any woman's life. Create a personal and effective life plan, and learn how to readily apply it in your busy daily life. Establish holy habits, feel fit and fabulous, and get organized. Just one goal a week for eight weeks—it's simple and fun.

Message from Connie

Hi Ladies,

This is the moment. This is the year. You can be your best self, your most beautiful self, your most faithful, fit, and fabulous self. Ever. Twelve months are before you-what will you do with them?

Years ago, after bearing several children and feeling overwhelmed, I created and lived my “Year of the Change.” During twelve months of taking life by the horns, I lost weight, got organized, and discovered more joy. Since then I’ve tweaked and taught the principles I have learned and now share them with you.

So make this your year of fabulous change by joining us on the “8-week Challenge” starting on January 8th! The 8-week Challenge is an online success program of “8 goals in 8 weeks in 8 areas of your life,” including fit and fabulous, get organized, balance womanhood and motherhood, and more. Using the Faithful, Fit and Fabulous book, each week you set and achieve a goal, with help from my podcasts, video segments, blog posts, and motivational emails!

Simple, fun, and productive. This program works (see testimonials below). And this year, we’re giving our new 2013 Fit & Fabulous podcast series FREE to those who sign up with a friend! Both of you receive weekly podcasts and posts on weight loss/energy gain tips and strategies. Jill Holmes, our online marketing director, has lost and kept off 50 POUNDS! She'll share her personal tips and secrets to make weight loss work for you, even eating chocolate daily.

Here's what women have said about the 8-week Challenge:

“I have learned so many things about who I am and what I want to do in my life. I have also gained a new sense of happiness. My husband and girls have noticed just in the last week the change in my attitude and they have told me that it is nice to hear me laugh again.” C.Adams

“Thank you so much for giving me the needed push to do something I've wanted to do for months & never completed. That has never happened for me with goal setting. THANK YOU!” B.Bird

“If I wouldn't have been doing the challenge I never would have thought to [accomplish this goal]. I am so glad I did this 8 week challenge! I want to continue these small goals for the rest of my life.” C. Rose

So join us now and jumpstart your ideal life. Get that closet organized, start that exercise program going, find that joy in daily living!

Join now! It's not too late. We'll send you all the details and catch you up so that you can get this year rolling in the right direction.

http://8basics.com/store/books/start-the-8-week-challenge-refer-a-friend-discount.

Sign up a friend and BOTH receive the 8 podcast series of “Fit & Fabulous”.
Email us for more information at connie@8basics.com.

Learn more here: http://8basics.com/b2b-life-coaching-support

So what are you waiting for? Join us for a fun and fabulous life-changing experience!

Author Connie Sokol
Connie Sokol is a mother of seven, a national and local presenter, and a regular speaker at Education Week. She is a monthly contributor on KSL TV “Studio 5,” and regular blogger for KSL "Motherhood Matters." She is a former TV and radio host for Bonneville Communications, and columnist for Deseret News and Utah Valley Magazine. Mrs. Sokol is the author of several books including the award-nominated romance Caribbean Crossroads, the 8-week Challenge program of Faithful, Fit & Fabulous, Life is Too Short for One Hair Color Series, as well as talk CDs and podcasts. Mrs. Sokol marinates in time spent with her family and eating decadent treats.

Website * Facebook

Connie also has a blog tour starting up for a brand new book! Click here to find out more and enter a fabulous giveaway!

Don't Miss These Great Reads

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If you've visited my blog very often, then you know I love to talk about books and share great reads with you. So here's a few books I've read lately that I have something to say about.
You definitely don't want to miss The False Prince by Jennifer NielsenI dare you to pick this book up and then try to put it down! I was so consumed by Sage's story that I read most of this book in one day.
I'm pretty excited that book #2 in this series will be coming out soon!

For What It's Worth by Karey White is another book that I read in just a couple sittings.This book was delicious from start to finish! A great romance, interesting career, and the biggest reason I enjoyed this book--it made me think about some important things. I love books that do that, but the best part is I didn't feel like the author was trying to give me a message, it was just the storyline was so engaging and the character experienced some great moments that really resonated with me.

Karey visited my blog for an interview, and shared some fun things. See it here http://www.rachellewrites.blogspot.com/2012/12/author-interview-with-karey-white.html

And here are a few books that are coming up fast on my To-Read list:

and these are the books I'm currently reading to my daughters, age 9 and 7. They love Harry Potter and the Ginnie West Adventures!
How about you? What is on your reading list? Have you read any of these books? If so, what did you think?

Happy Valentine's Day

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If you've visited my blog this month, you might have noticed that I've been MIA, so I wanted to pop in real quick to say Happy Valentine's Day!
My family and I took a wonderful vacation to California last week where our kids saw the ocean for the first time, stayed in their first hotel, and made their first visit to Disneyland! It was an incredible vacation and the kids were so good. We did leave our two-year-old son with his grandparents in Idaho and he had a great time (and every time we saw a crying two-year-old in Disneyland, my husband and I were thankful we made that choice.)

I love my family! And I love each of my wonderful blogging friends/readers. Thanks for your support and I hope that you have a fantastic day!

This week's food coupons were not very good :-(

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After a few weeks of great deals after Christmas, I was disappointed to find just one measly little insert in this week's paper. .....

Also, at Meijer this week their main sale was the '10 for $10' sale that they do every couple months. Usually there are at least a few items in this sale that make it worthwhile to use your coupons, but this week all the items are Meijer brand items.

Hopefully the food deals pick up again next week!

Back from vacation........Back to coupbloggin'!

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CVS has some great deals this week on paper products and razors. Check out the ad HERE!

Colgate Sensitive Pro Relief is on sale for $4.99 (Yowzers!)
--After a $4.00 ECB reward, the final price is 99 cents. If you use the 75 cents off colgate coupon from this weeks paper, it can be yours for only TWENTY FIVE CENTS! There is a limit off 2 per household for this deal, so if you use two coupons you can double your savings.

Glade air freshener spray is on sale, at half off, for $1.00 a can. I couldn't find any coupons for it, but it is still a great price even without the coupon.

Schick Hydro products are ALL on sale, AND there are mega savings to be found in this week's Sunday paper. Check out page three of the CVS sale's ad......see how they tell you exactly which coupons to use? How convenient......

However, the ad failed to mention that there are also $4.00 coupons available to save on Schick Hydro Silk women's razors and carteridges, as well as $4.00 coupons to save on men's Schick Hydro 5 Power Select razors -------> ------->

Meaning that after ECB reward reimbursement AND $4.00 coupon application, both items can be yours for only $1.99!

The best part is that there is a SIX item limit in this sale. Buy multiple papers and cash in on this great deal!

18 Şubat 2013 Pazartesi

Your Year Not Off to a Great Start? It's Not too Late!

Don't Miss These Great Reads

Happy Valentine's Day

I love my family! And I love each of my wonderful blogging friends/readers. Thanks for your support and I hope that you have a fantastic day!

This week's food coupons were not very good :-(

Back from vacation........Back to coupbloggin'!

Glade air freshener spray is on sale, at half off, for $1.00 a can. I couldn't find any coupons for it, but it is still a great price even without the coupon.

17 Şubat 2013 Pazar

Your Year Not Off to a Great Start? It's Not too Late!

Don't Miss These Great Reads

Happy Valentine's Day

I love my family! And I love each of my wonderful blogging friends/readers. Thanks for your support and I hope that you have a fantastic day!

This week's food coupons were not very good :-(

Back from vacation........Back to coupbloggin'!

Glade air freshener spray is on sale, at half off, for $1.00 a can. I couldn't find any coupons for it, but it is still a great price even without the coupon.

16 Şubat 2013 Cumartesi

Your Year Not Off to a Great Start? It's Not too Late!

Don't Miss These Great Reads

Happy Valentine's Day

I love my family! And I love each of my wonderful blogging friends/readers. Thanks for your support and I hope that you have a fantastic day!

This week's food coupons were not very good :-(

Back from vacation........Back to coupbloggin'!

Glade air freshener spray is on sale, at half off, for $1.00 a can. I couldn't find any coupons for it, but it is still a great price even without the coupon.

15 Şubat 2013 Cuma

Your Year Not Off to a Great Start? It's Not too Late!

Don't Miss These Great Reads

Happy Valentine's Day

I love my family! And I love each of my wonderful blogging friends/readers. Thanks for your support and I hope that you have a fantastic day!

This week's food coupons were not very good :-(

Back from vacation........Back to coupbloggin'!

Glade air freshener spray is on sale, at half off, for $1.00 a can. I couldn't find any coupons for it, but it is still a great price even without the coupon.

14 Şubat 2013 Perşembe

vanilla bean cream sprinkle cake.

To contact us Click HERE

Sometimes, I just feel like writing. Not about baking, not about food; nothing in particular, really.

I like writing, even though I don't think I'm that good. I like crafting sentences. I think the English language is so pretty. A sentence is like a plain white T-shirt and adjectives are the ribbons and lace. The nouns can be the fabric, since they are quintessential in a proper sentence. The verbs are the buttons and zippers as you have to move your fingers to button up those buttons and zip up those zips. The colors and designs of those buttons and zips are the adverbs, as they make them more interesting.
I also think that English is also one of the most melodic languages to be spoken.

Do you know that English is the second most-spoken language in the world? Right after Mandarin.

I like finding new words, and I've learnt many browsing through blogs. Here's one of my new favourites: panache. You pronounce it just like ganache. I feel so cool just by saying it. And here's another: quel que soit, meaning whatever. Like, I know that this counts more as a phrase than a word, but quel que soit. This the kind of word that I want to show off while sticking my nose in the air. But first, I have to learn how to pronounce it with a bit of french flair.

My paragraphs don't link together, I know. That happens to me all the time when I want to write about too many things in a bout of excitement. Since there is already no structure whatsoever, I'm going to talk about cake now. This post pretty much feels like a Christmas tree with no color coordination to me.
Or even worse- hot pink pants with a neon green top. Oh please shield my eyes.

I was really anticipating for this to be an outstanding cake based on its ingredients- vanilla bean, cream and rum. Sadly, it didn't quite live up to my expectations. Part of it was my fault. I ran out of almond extract so I didn't include any. I also messed up the glaze. I dumped all of the ingredients into the pan at once at the beginning of the recipe by mistake instead of following instructions. Although the taste of the cake was pretty much mundane, I loved its dense yet moist crumb. The funfetti, which was my spur-of-the-moment addition, surprisingly managed to retain a bit of crunch. (I can only vouch for the first day though.)

Vanilla Bean Cream Sprinkle Cake
lightly adapted from Baking by Flavour

I made a few, okay, a lot, of changes to the original recipe. I didn't have shortening so I substituted it with butter, used more vanilla bean since I didn't have any vanilla sugar, added sprinkles and most obviously, downsized the cake. The measurements are a bit finicky but try your best!

For the cake:
70g all-purpose flour
23g cake flour
1/10 tsp baking powder
1/5 tsp salt
3/20 tsp ground nutmeg
3/5 stick butter
1/2 cup sugar
seed scrapings from one-fourth of a vanilla bean (save the pod for the glaze)
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/10 tsp almond extract
50ml light cream
3 tbsp sprinkles

For the glaze:
15g sugar
1 tbsp water
vanilla bean that was used for the cake
1/2 tsp dark rum
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
a drop of almond extract

For the cake: Preheat oven to 325F. Grease and flour a 3-cup tube or bundt pan.

Sift the flours, baking powder, ground nutmeg and salt together into a bowl.

Beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the seeds of the vanilla bean. Add the sugar in 3 additions, beating until combined after each addition. After all the sugar has been added, beat until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Add the extracts and beat to combine. Add the egg in 5 parts, beating to fully incorporate each part before adding the next.

Alternately stir in the flour mixture in 3 additions and cream in 2 additions. Stir in the sprinkles.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes before unmolding onto a rack with a tray below to catch any dripping syrup when applied later.

For the glaze: (You should make this while the cake is baking.) Combine the sugar, water and vanilla pod in a small saucepan. Place the pan on low heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar has melted. Bring the syrup to a boil and boil until it has reduced and thickened slightly. Add the rum and heat for another 10 seconds. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the extracts. Remove the vanilla pod and set the pan aside to cool.

Using a pastry brush, brush the top of the cake (previously the bottom) with the syrup while the cake is still warm. Cool the cake before slicing.

brown sugar apricot bars.

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The moment my caboose hits the chair, my sore muscles instantly relax like a knot that has been unravelled. A tension still dwells in my legs as blood courses rapidly through them, not unlike how the string of the recently unravelled knot remains somewhat curly. For a fleeting moment, I reach heaven closer than any point in life. My eyelids start to flutter shut unconsciously in bliss, but halfway, I stop. What could be more cliche than showing signs of blissfulness by allowing your peepers to close and your head tilted slightly back? I defiantly will my eyelids to spring back up, not wanting to adhere to such cheesy imagery. But yet, I thought in my head, this is paradise. 10 minutes...15 minutes...20 minutes later, the lower half of my body didn't, couldn't, even shift an inch. Somewhere within that time, my eyelids felt like weights were hanging on them and started to droop, this time from sheer exhaustion. No! I can't afford to close my eyes here or I'll never wake up to sleep in my bed. So, to stave off the sleepy bug, I log on to blogger and started typing. It's working- but I doubt it will work for long.

To cut a long story short, I was on my feet nearly the whole of a good 12 hours, and finally being able to let my behind adhere to a chair for more than 5 minutes was such a treat. When I finally lay down in a horizontal position, I was out for 11 hours straight. Amazing. I woke up hungry but with nothing to eat and ended up ravaging my snack cupboard for a quick fix. I was still unsatisfied though, so I proceeded to the kitchen to whip up something. Not to cook, if that's what you're thinking, because I can't cook for nuts. I went to bake some of these brown sugar apricot bars, which I chose simply because they were quick. Fast forward 1 hour later and they were ready to eat. Of course, it was only made possible by cheating with the cooling process. Thank you technology for freezers!

These bars, and I swear I'm not biased because I was hungry, are a.w.e.s.o.m.e. It's brown sugar-coconut-walnut-apricot nutty nirvana. They are moist and chewy with a sturdy layer of crunch on top.

Make them. It's not an option.

Brown Sugar Apricot Bars
adapted from Baking by Flavour

1 cup coarsely chopped dried apricots
1 1/2 tbsp apricot jam
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp cake flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cardamom (I omitted)
1 stick butter, melted and cooled
2/3 cup brown sugar
5 tbsp sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup lightly packed sweetened flaked coconut (I used desiccated)
2/3 cup chopped walnuts, toasted and cooled

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare a 9 inch square baking pan.

Combine the dried apricots and apricot jam together in a bowl and stir to coat the apricot pieces evenly.

Sift the flours, salt, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and cardamom in another bowl.

Stir the melted butter and sugars until combined. Blend in the eggs and vanilla extract. Stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Stir in the apricot mixture, coconut and walnuts until evenly distributed.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes or until golden on top and just set. Cool completely before cutting.

mocha bars.

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Oh this is going to be so hilarious because I am such the genius, as usual. I was following the recipe for these mocha bars but scaled down to a quarter for a smaller batch. I did it by mental calculation to give my brain a good morning workout. Everything was going fine, almost too uneventfully, when Murphy's Law turned around and bit me in the behind. At the last step, of all tragedies! I had my batter scraped and ready to go in my loaf pan and as I was about to send it into the fiery temperatures of the metal box, I had this nagging feeling to check the recipe again. And hey presto! I forgot to stir in the heavy cream.

I considered leaving it out but remembered that the book said that the cream would smooth out the bitterness of the unsweetened chocolate and coffee so I didn't. Pouring all the batter out of the pan into the mixing bowl would result in loss of batter, plus create more trouble by having to get another clean loaf pan and then spraying it with non-stick baking spray. So what did I do? I mixed the cream directly into the batter while it was in the pan, praying fervently that I could somehow get it all evenly mixed.

After I finished with a satisfied there!, Murphy's Law came to say hi again. I added double the amount of cream I needed. You see? That's what would happen if you try to handle finicky mental sums while you are mentally distressed. At that point of realization, I was so exasperated that I added colourful M&Ms on top to cheer me up (which, by the way, didn't turn out to be such a good idea because the shells cracked like fissures). I poured out too much initially and tried to put back the excess into the bag, accidentally sacrificing one orange M&M in the process. May you rest in peace.

You know, when I first saw the title of the recipe, I thought that these bars would be a cookie kind of bar. While I was mixing up the batter, it seemed like a brownie sort of recipe to me. But when I read the instructions in detail, it called these cake. I felt that these were more brownie-like because they are fudgy. Although I have to admit, they are lighter than the average brownie so the most accurate description would be a half-fudgy half-cakey brownie. Then again, brownies are under the cake family- the author wasn't wrong to call them cake.

While the batter smelled strongly of coffee, after they were baked, the coffee taste wasn't that prominent anymore. I would be hard-pressed to call these mocha bars if I hadn't known what had gone into them. The coffee helps to boost the chocolate flavor rather than vie with it on an equal level, which makes it mocha, does it not? Still, that doesn't change the fact that these bars are delicious. Now if you would excuse me, I'm going to chill the rest of the bars to turn them into chocolate fudge.

Mocha Bars
lightly adapted from Baking by Flavour

49g unsalted butter
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, chopped finely
1/2 tsp instant coffee
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp cake flour
1 1/2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/16 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 small egg
80g sugar
3/4 tsp heavy cream
3 tbsp chopped walnuts, toasted and cooled

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare a mini loaf pan.

Place the chopped unsweetened chocolate and instant coffee in a small ramekin.

Place the butter in a small saucepan and heat on medium until the butter has melted and is sputtering slightly. Immediately pour the butter into the small ramekin. Let the mixture stand.

Sift the flours, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Toss a bit of the flour mixture with the chocolate chips until they are well-coated. Shake off the excess and set the chocolate chips aside.

Stir the vanilla extract into the butter mixture until the mixture is homogenous.

Whisk the egg until foamy. Whisk in the sugar gradually and continue whisking until the mixture is thick and slightly pale. Stir in the butter mixture until combined. Sift over the flour mixture until no traces of flour can be seen. Stir in the heavy cream, chocolate chips and walnuts until evenly mixed.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 25 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes before unmolding onto a rack to cool completely.