Chocolate Wasted Cake

Mr. and I had a Sunday afternoon in the Kitchen yesterday. We sometimes set out to make creations and I think it is so fun that sometimes Mr. cooks with me.

We had a Chili Cook Off and Cake Auction at Church yesterday. Mr. was an esteemed judge at the cook off which meant we had to arrive early so our cake was not ready for the auction. The cake was still bought by a friend for a whopping $60 towards the church fundraiser. So the cake and all our hard work still went to a good cause! Better Late than Never!

I topped the cake with leftover chocolate whoppers, Reeses, and kit kats from the Trunk er Treat the night before!

Here is the recipe. A couple changes I made:
- I wanted to try a mini cake so I poured the batter into a 9x13 in rectangular pan, cut the circular layers out with a bread knife using a bowl as my guide but you could use a biscuit cutter I just didn't have one and I wanted the cake slightly bigger than that.
- I halved the icing recipe
- I also omitted the chocolate chips from the cake recipe because I am using the left over cake for cake balls and I didn't know what the chips would do to the consistency of the cake.
- I did not drizzle the chocolate over the top of the cake. That would have been as Mr. put it more "aesthetically pleasing" but after a long day it just wasn't happening. And I'm sure it was just as yummy!

This is a yummy chocolate cake recipe though. (very moist)

Trunk 'er Treat: Haunted Pumpkin Patch

Last night was the Trunk 'er Treat at Good Shepard Methodist Church. It was a blast as usual! This was our second year as part of the festivities and I can never find good inspiration for these so I thought I would contribute some pictures of the blogosphere.

 We used 6 pumpkins, 4 inside the trunk and 2 by our chairs, webbing, little plastic spider rings (that the kids could pick out of the webbing) and a glass jar and tons of candy! The kids really like to grab handfuls of candy!

Dillenger as one of our pumpkins! This is her second change of costume... Long story!

The plan was to have Dill sit in the car and be one of the pumpkins. It worked for a good portion of the night.

This was Dill's first costume... Also pumpkin, but she was really not liking the hat. She literally just moped around with the stem on her head.

Volunteering

Today I spent the day volunteering at the Aids Interfaith Network (someone made me, I am not that good of a person, though I wish I could say I was!). It was a great and humbling experience. I must confess that I was the world's worst volunteer. I did way more socializing than "volunteering."

During the morning I played Farkle with some of the patrons of the facility. This facility has an adult day care program. Basically a place where people can come throughout the week and spend time socializing, playing games, and also getting a couple home-cooked meals.  This provides respite care to family members who are the full-time caregivers of these people and socialization for homeless individuals who would otherwise be on the street.

After two rounds of getting trounced in Farkle, it was time for bingo. I have never played this competitively so I had some learning to do. One of the patrons S. taught me that you never clear your card until someone yells "Clear your card." Just because someone yells Bingo does not mean that they have won, they may have the wrong numbers covered by mistake and then if you have cleared your card you can't continue when the game resumes! The last bingo prize was a bag of white cotton socks. A man at our table St. remarked, "man, I want those socks. You always need some good socks." That broke my heart. Socks?!

I came home and decided I was going to bag up some of mine and Mr's warm clothes and donate them when I go back on Thursday. In about 10 minutes of shuffling around in the garage and closets I had 6 wal-mart bags full of clothes for the shelter.

Mr. and I are not fashonistas by any stretch of the imagination. But even so we have 4 closets in our house and all of them are filled to the brim with clothes. I counted in Mr.'s side of the closet he has 42 dress shirts! 42! (excessive I know and he doesn't wear all of them).

It is so easy for me to think about what I want that I don't have. Uggs, hardwood floors, a new car... But I was so thankful for today. Because it made me look outside myself and my problems and my wants and needs.

Volunteer your time, give an old coat to a shelter, bring a bag of food to a food bank. You will get more than you give. 'Tis the season!