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Sometimes you just want a little chocolate cake. A little something not covered in frosting but consistently delicious. There are many chocolate cake recipes out there but this one is simple, there is not hot water or espresso powder-just simple ingredients you probably already have. 

  
Acme Addictive Chocolate Bundt

1 cup butter softened 

2 eggs room temp

2 cups sour cream

1 tsp vanilla 

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 3/4 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Cream sugar and butter, add eggs one at a time then the sour cream and vanilla. 

In a separate bowl whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet and beat on medium speed for a few minutes. (3-5). 

Spray a bundt span with flour baking spray (or grease the pan and dust with cocoa powder). 

Pour batter into pan and slip into a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes. Until a tooth pick comes out clean. 

Cool and dust with powdered sugar. That’s it honest – keep it simple. 

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I am a single woman and as such am invited to many thanksgiving dinners, family and friend events alike. This year I couldn’t be with family so I opted to attend an “orphans” feast hosted by really great friends. Said friends were two guys, who produced a good turkey, but beyond that there was Stove-top stuffing, mashed potatoes that consisted of boiled potatoes and water, store bought pumpkin pie..you get the picture.
So, on Black Friday, rather than being foolish and braving the crowds in stores I stayed put at home. I decided to make a complete Thanksgiving feast in an effort to produce “left overs.”
No Thanksgiving can be complete without a good pumpkin pie but I had so much going on I decided to use a frozen pie crust. BIG MISTAKE! While the custard of my pie was absolutely delicious the crust never really cooked so it is still a little mushy and blah. NEVER AGAIN will I cheat. I can make a great pie crust with my eyes closed but I didn’t want to deal with another mess. I will redeem myself soon and make another pie with real crust.

But the smell emanating from my oven right now is so delicious I had to share it. I spent a good 20 minutes searching the web for something yummy to do with a pork tenderloin..and finally “stumbled upon” what smells to be a winner.

Take your loin, trim it, wash it, pat it dry.

Take 1 cup unseasoned bread crumbs and brown in 1tbsp of olive oil
Remove from heat and in a bowl mix in 4tbsp horseradish, salt and pepper to taste

In a separate bowl mix 3tbsp spicy (or dijon) mustard and 2tbsp mayo (I used light mayo since the flavor will be pretty much masked by the mustard anyway).

Place your loin(s) on a baking sheet (I put parchment on my baking sheet) slather with the Mayo and Mustard combo. Then cover with breadcrumb mixture.

Put in the oven at 450 for 25 minutes. Let rest before cooking.. it smells really good and I had to write about it.

I am still resisting my urge to bake, although I did scour the web today looking for interesting baking blogs and found a bunch that I really liked. I think you can see them on my blog, so by all means venture out and visit some! Once the store gets off the ground I am going to be hosting an entire site with a community area and a favorite links page so that all of my CraftBake customers can have instant access to other CraftBakers from around the globe!

As for the rest of my night.. I just need to figure out what to serve with this pork..and what wine to drink!

I babysat this bread for 10 days, mashing the bag, adding ingredients, tending to it like a mama bird waiting for an egg to hatch. The day finally came to bake it off, I was hopeful but certainly not expecting a miracle. Which is a blessing because it was awful! I followed the instructions, sugared the pans, mixed the batter in a glass bowl with a wooden spoon, poured it in the pans and baked it as directed for an hour.
It didn’t smell great, it certainly didn’t look great, and it tasted horrid! Certainly not the success that my spring celebration carrot cake was. Which by the way it was DELICIOUS!

Yeah, that’s a good day. I don’t like apple pie..but I do love good homemade apple pie filling in some puff pastry, a la turnover..all hot and delicious, swimming in vanilla ice cream.

That’s it for today..that’s my blog.. life changing, I am sure!

I have been having more and more conversations about this dream of mine and every time I talk to guys I get a puzzled look and the following statement “What are you going to sell?”

It might be hard to imagine that this generation is embracing traditional values in a modern way. We aren’t closed minded and uninterested in the world but we do want to make personal connections with friends, family, and community at large. We no longer want to “buy” our place in society but rather we want to earn it. We want our families to grow with some tradition that does not involve a quick trip through the drive through. Not everyone can be a Betty Crocker but everyone can bake something and that’s what I am going to sell.

So many people think that the world is only going to be online and that everything will be bought and sold online exclusively but people like to feel connected and they are willing to pay a little more for some things if it means they can interact with real people. A real store, brick and mortar, provides a meeting place, allows you the opportunity to touch and taste and ask questions.

I decided that I really don’t want to sell all the small appliances that go with baking (the kitchen aid mixers, the food processors, blenders etc) they can all be bought online or at mass retail outlets and while I will have them in the store and reference them on the website it just doesn’t make sense to sell them. I want to see the ingredients and tools used to bake. Cookbooks, interesting tools, chocolate, extracts, flours, sugars, fancy things, basic things, some hardware.. I want to keep the prices reasonable but in reality there will be items in the store at every price point. My goal is to never have anyone leave the store without at least buying something.

But most importantly.. what I am selling is that old fashioned connection with a modern assist. No online store but certainly an online community.