A Delicious Alternative

It's finally happened. I'm eating dog food. I knew it would happen at some point but I just didn't know how soon or in what context. I baked up my newly developed cake recipes and they came out as a delicious healthy alternative to the usual sinfully delicious bakery fare but I've come to realize that the yummy Carob Cake is now an amazing alternative to my favorite devil's food cake. It even LOOKS like a chocolate muffin/cake and it is just amazing! I ate a piece of Katie's trial cake and she looked at me with a furrowed brow as if to say, "What do you think you are doing?!" I looked at her and said, "Well, quite frankly my dear, I BAKED that so I should be able to taste it, right?" Yes, I do talk to Katie as if she is a person. Whether she understands me or not, that's still up in the air but I did know one thing. She didn't like me trying her cake. Nor did she like the fact that I only gave her a tiny slice of cake and saved the rest for a little test run and sampling for a few pet stores I'm trying to woo.

So I took the gorgeous sample cakes and stuck them in the fridge to avoid "the stare" and tripping over Katie constantly as she tried to "herd" me into giving her another piece.
But then I felt bad so I gave her another piece of the carob cake and she wanted to go out and play. We went out to the yard and she ran around like she was trying to make a new Indy record or something. She nipped at my ankles as I chased her around the yard and we had a blast. It was some really great dog play time. Katie and I came inside and she lapped up a bowl of water and then plopped down for a nap.

I went off to one of my closest friend's barbeque that afternoon and there were some adorable little 2 year olds running around the yard. The little boy, a golden headed boy was straight out of a JCrew catalog and the little girl was like those little precious moment angel girls. Absolutely adorable kids and they were talking up a storm, basking in all the attention they were getting form the "ladies." The little boy would walk up to us and passing by would say, "Buh bye lady!" That was cute in a bottle. I gotta tell ya. So there were some fantastic brownies that one of the guests had baked, the little girl's mom actually. These were amazing. Perfectly soft and chewy at the same time, just the right amount of chocolatey goodness. Well, I watched that little fairhaired boy have a small corner of a brownie and he basically did exactly what Katie had done, he went off pacing the entire yard non-stop and then came back for more brownie. His mom obliged since she had divided up a brownie into pieces for him and he would continue his patroling of the yard until he needed to refuel again. This went on through the evening and I just marvelled at how much he had resembled Katie after she had eaten the carob cake.

I did get a great paws up from Chelsea, my friends' dog who ate some of the peanut butter & carrot cake and then lay down on the floor and would not budge until she got another piece. Then after she had a piece of the Carob cake, her tail did not stop wagging! I love the approval paw.

I will admit, decorating is fun but although I consider myself fairly artistic, the actual perfecting of cake icing is hard work! I spent hours just trying to figure out how to use an icing bag and then to smooth out the cake to make it look just right was another couple of hours. But, I did it. Like most tasks, I can set my mind to doing something and it will be done. Now I just have to figure out how to make those little flower thingeys like Ron Ben Israel...hahaha, yeah right. I'll leave that cake expertise up to the real pastry chefs. But Barnes and Noble does have a great cake icing section, and I do love a challenge...stay tuned for more adventures in frosting;)

For a great article on Carob, check out wikipedia here...I now love Wikipedia almost as much as I love Mapquest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carob