Amazingly Awesome Cake

My parents and grandfather were in Tucson this weekend for commencement, and I made this caramel chocolate cake from Annie's Eats for Mother's Day.  Holy crap was it delicious.  So, so good.  I wound up not using salt...I know my mom and I both love salted desserts, but I wasn't sure how popular it would be otherwise.  I do think it would be good salted, but it was also incredibly delicious without salt.  I also made this with store-bought caramel...I just can't make caramel to save my life.  I've struggled with it since the first time I tried, and from my three attempts this go-around, I wound up with 1 slightly burnt batch, and 2 crystallized batches... Boo.  The upside is it still tastes fabulous with non-home-made caramel (even if I did catch some flack for it).

At this point I've tried a lot of recipes, and I know I bake pretty well, so it takes a lot to impress me, and I was totally blown away by this cake.  I'd say this is probably in the top three things I've ever made. This cake made such an impression on my grandfather that Little Sister said he was still raving about it when they got home tonight.

Here it is.  Dark chocolate cake, caramel Swiss buttercream filling, fudge-y chocolate frosting.

Dragging

The week hasn't even technically started and my feet are already dragging.  It's Sunday, I've been in lab for 10 hours, and I'm really not at all close to done with this dumb experiment...  So tired.  Where I was freaking out a couple weeks ago, now I'm just super tired.  Tired because I've been working all day, and even more tired thinking about the next four weeks.  It's going to be a giant blur of poster making, dissertation writing, my graduation, more poster making and dissertation writing, my dad's birthday, my sister's graduation, a conference, job hunting, more dissertation writing, dress fittings, bachelorette party, more dissertation writing, wedding cake making, and wedding.  When all that is done, I'll have about one more week to finish my dissertation.

This experiment took a while to get going, then was going ok, and then my capillary ran dry, so I refilled it, and of course the charge state I'd been working with is gone.  And then I couldn't get protein to spray to save my life.  GAH.  While I'm sitting here waiting on spectra I feel like I should be writing or doing something useful, but I'm just too tired.  I did revisions on a chapter earlier, and opened a new document for the next chapter I've got to write.  But I just can't do it anymore.  I almost wish these were hour long spectra rather than 10 minute spectra so I could nap.

Cinco de Mayo & Supermoon

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!  Ok, so that about exhausts my knowledge of Spanish.  Ok, so not quite, but I really don't know much more even though my vocabulary has probably doubled since moving to Tucson.

I made margarita cupcakes and cookies for a Cinco de Mayo party this afternoon.

I made the cupcakes (from Annie's Eats) about two years ago for a Memorial Day party, but brought them out again for the more appropriate May holiday.  We thought we had conquered the oh-so-finnicky Swiss buttercream frosting, but even though we eventually got it to the right consistency, it still tasted funny to us.  Too buttery.  While butter makes things delicious, you don't want things to actually taste like straight up whipped butter (although I have one friend/former labmate who might...).  They turned out ok overall, though not quite what I thought they should be.  I swear the frosting tasted better the first time I made them when I hadn't really figured out Swiss buttercream yet.

The cookies (from Smitten Kitchen) were delicious, though E didn't think they were nearly as margarita-y as she expected.  I wouldn't mind a stronger tequila flavor, but I thought they were tasty and pretty close.  While I really liked the bit of salt around the edges, I would totally make these again without the salt rim for a non-Cinco-de-Mayo occasion.  I think the flecks of orange and lime zest are just so pretty.

And finally, here's a shot I took of tonight's "Super Moon" after I got home from the party.