Just can't get enough!

The fear of letting my rhubarb go to waste prompted me to get up a 6:15 yesterday even though I'd stayed up past midnight. My coworkers were the lucky beneficiaries of my efforts. They deserved a little treat; yesterday was the last day of exams for the school year, and the beginning of the end of grading, report cards, and classroom clean-up (but mostly I just wanted to enjoy my rhubarb before it went rotten, shhh....).

It was a balls-y move, getting up at 6:15 to cook something, especially after the last time I tried to prepare food before 7:30 am I sheared off the bottom of a bottle of olive oil, resulting in a giant slick to clean up. Wasn't expecting to be sopping up olive oil for 20 minutes before going to work when the alarm went off that morning. So I guess you could say that yesterday's Rhubarb-Strawberry Pudding Cake, i.e. Breakfast Cake, got me back on the morning-kitchen horse.

If it weren't for melting the butter or cooking the rhubarb with water and cornstarch, this would be a very very simple recipe. As it is, it is very simple, because for such basic ingredients, it tastes so good. If you're going to eat cake for breakfast, this should be the one, with its all-star rhubarb-strawberry fruit mixture hiding beneath slightly spongy sweet cake.

Chocolate Cake needs no occasion

I made chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting last Sunday. I didn't have an occasion, unless Sunday counts. I hate Sundays, especially lonely ones at the end of dull weekends, but what better way to throw a pity party than with chocolate cake?!

I used a recipe by the lovely Ina Garten from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. I've wanted to make this for a long time since I love this cookbook so much. In an act of wisdom, I cut the buttercream frosting recipe in half because I know Ina loves her frosting, and as much as I do too, I also like my arteries to be clear. The recipe calls for a POUND of butter. That's on top of the 1/2 pound in the cake. The two sticks needed for a half recipe of frosting is not quite so heart-attack inducing.

I think this was the third or fourth layer cake I've ever made from scratch (but my childhood made me a pro at baking from cake mix), and I think I've found my new pastime. Something tells me my boyfriend, housemates, and coworkers won't mind my new interest. Also, cake really comes in handy when you don't hear your alarm go off and you wake up at the time that you should be walking in the door at work. Cake for Breakfast!