Icing on the cake...

The last few weeks have been something of a rush as we've scrambled to fit in birthdays, vacation and the dreaded back-to-school shop. (Is that just a boy thing? Because I used to love back to school shopping. My two fellas hate it with the passion of a thousand blazing suns.) Bottom line, I'm a bit behind in terms of keeping this food journal up to date. First order of business - birthday cake. I can't believe I have a nine year old, but it's true. Daniel requested a chocolate cake with chocolate icing for his cake this year and I was happy to oblige.

This year I was a tad busy at work the week of Daniel's birthday. So I took great pleasure in making his cake because I find baking relaxing. (I wish I found yoga or pilates relaxing - the health benefits of these pursuits versus baking sweet, sticky concoctions that beg to be consumed fresh out of the oven are obvious, no?) So. Cake. I think I used a Cook's Illustrated recipe to make this cake. I honestly can't remember, that's how busy I was that week. I have a vague memory of multiple cookbooks being flung open across my kitchen island while I searched for a recipe that promised to be simple yet tasty. I remember that I watched an episode or two of Monk while I was mixing the cake and while it was baking because I've developed something of a Monk-fixation this Summer thanks to Netflix. I also know that I used a Canadian Living Recipe for the icing because I was quite happy with how it turned out and made sure to create a Bookmark for the recipe. You can never have too many good recipes for chocolate icing, in my opinion. It might be a bit sweet for some tastes but we liked it just fine Chez Robinson. Particularly Patrick, who tends to eat all of the icing first, or save it as a treat for last depending on his mood!

Chocolate Icing Recipe - from Canadian Living

1 cup (250 mL) icing sugar
1/4 cup (50 mL) butter, softened
1 oz (28 g) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
4 tsp (18 mL) hot water
1/2 tsp (2 mL) vanilla

In bowl, beat sugar with butter; beat in chocolate, hot water and vanilla until smooth and fluffy.