Monday, February 28, 2011

Chocolate Cake, Emergency Room, Lemon Cake, & Rolo Brownie Ice Cream

My Uncle Dave and his girlfriend Lori both celebrated their birthdays this month. Unfortunately, they had to celebrate separately because Uncle Dave was in the south training for his new, very exciting job on the trains. After six long weeks, he finally returned home on Saturday. They decided to have a Happy to Be Home/Birthday Party, and asked mom if we would make the cake! She said why yes, of course, and then offered to make two cakes -- there are two birthdays, here. And then she said that perhaps we should make ice cream, too. After scouring the cookbooks for the perfect birthday cakes we landed on a Devil's Food Chocolate cake with Ganache frosting, a Lemon Mascarpone Layer cake, and Rolo-Brownie ice cream.

Friday night mom made the first batch of ice cream (our tiny ice cream maker only churns a small amount at a time), and we were feeling good. On Saturday we would make the second batch of ice cream, and then both of the cakes.

Saturday morning mom and I woke up raring to go -- well, she did, it took me a while to wake up, but I got there eventually. We're baking up a storm -- the chocolate cake is completely mixed, melts into the baking pans, and then is put in the oven to turn into gooey deliciousness.


I quartered Rolos for the brownies that had to be made for the ice cream:



Oh, the decadence! The smell of chocolate and caramel were in the air...and the taste was in my mouth. I am a compulsive beater licker, and scrap-of-whatever-I'm-making eater. The Rolos were delicious. So creamy. So smooth. Anyway, the Roloed brownies were also made. So we had two things almost done (the cake was still in the oven) when it happened. I was taking tiny bites off a hunk of sharp cheddar cheese so I could savor every bite, and mom was cleaning up the kitchen when we heard a crash. After approximately fifty "fucks" used in a variety of ways in under two seconds, mom and I realized that the crash was Shawn falling off the ladder he was straddling whilst scraping snow and ice off the roof. Yeah. While I would rather dig a hole and make my way to China, I thought it might be a good idea to call for an ambulance, and try to help mom not have her own coronary. I really don't know what my RD was thinking when she told me that I am good in emergency situations, because I really do not feel that this is the case. I panic. I call emergency personnel because I do not want to be the one out there dealing with pain and whatever gore may or may not be there. Thank god mom was alright with being the one to fly out the door. I can man the phone. All the while I'm hastily scribbling down every last drug Shawn has in the cupboard, and the damn timer for the chocolate cake is very angrily screeching at me to check and see if it's done. I figured the drugs were more important to have for the EMTs when they got here, so the cake had to just chill until I was done (Unfortunately, I think that made the cake a little overdone. What are we to do?). Crikey. After a whole bunch of drama, and five hours sitting in the hospital lobby -- waaaaaaaaay to much gore for me to be around *shivers* -- Shawn is told he has a broken rib (we found out today that it was not the case, he only pulled whatever muscle is on your side and runs from your ass to your shoulder).

Lovely.


We were able to take him home that night, and mom and I were so exhausted but wired that I finished making the ice cream and she finished the lemon cake.

Rolo brownie chunks!

The end product was incredible!
After that I was about beat. Mom was not, and decided to start and finish making the lemon cake -- I went to bed, and therefore have no pictures to document. I do have pictures of the gorgeous finished product though.




The filling is a lemon curd, also layered with mascarpone cheese.

The chocolate cake was a touch crumbly.....

Uncle Dave's magic coffee -- better than Timmy Ho's! "Do you want whipped cream?" Ummmmmmm......yeah!


Mom and I had quite the baking experience on Saturday, and a completely wonderful day on Sunday. Thank god for family and food!

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