But first...
And I love this picture. I had a reluctant reader who decided he WOULD NOT READ. I believe in leading kids to education, not shoving it down their throats, so I told him that was fine. He was only six after all. And so the months went on and he repeated how he would never read and didn't want to. But it happened anyway. You just can't NOT read when you're read to for an hour a night (oh, the wonderful books we've read!), spend hours in a library every week, live in a house where books outnumber people 100-1, and are surrounded by people reading ALL THE TIME. So, I had to snap this picture of my reluctant reader who now reads at a fourth grade level. In fact, he was reading the Redwall series by Brian Jacques last night. Makes my mama heart happy. :)
You'll need these ingredients:
1 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp espresso powder
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1 cup plus 2 tbs flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
For the ganache topping:
3/4 cup heavy cream
4.5 oz dark chocolate
Sorry I don't have pictures of the process. I know I took some, but I was also cleaning out my phone from the trip and somehow... That's why I love facebook. At least there was one photo of the cake!
Mix the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla together. Mix all dry ingredients. Mix sugar butter mix and dry ingredients together, then slowly add sour cream and milk. Cook at 350F for about 40-50 minutes. Check often because the color is so dark you won't be able to tell by looking and that last ten minutes can make or break a cake!
So, here's our recipe for next week! Goes right along with Ruthy's Christmas in July collections!
We actually checked out the pan from our library. How cool is that??
But a word of warning... it doesn't like all cakes. This poor lemon blueberry buttermilk cake was super delicious but not fit for company, hahahaha.
OK, see everyone next week! I'm at the end of a deadline and I ALWAYS cook like crazy. Stress relief... unless it looks like the cake above!
Stay cool and keep cooking!
Love that reluctant reader photo! And I love how you approached the issue, even though your reader-loving heart must have been in major panic mode. So wise not to insist or try to push it. And now, look at him! Woot!
ReplyDeleteAnd the chocolate cake looks yummy. I don't drink coffee though...ah, but my daughter works in a coffee shop expresso ingredient dilemma solved. I'll try this once the weather cools down. If it ever does.
Your library lends cake pans????? I've heard of toy lending libraries but...wow!
You know, he's my fifth child so I wasn't quite panicking as much as you'd think. My oldest (16) has severe dyslexia and couldn't read fluently until she was nine. Now she's in college and getting good grades and I look back at those years and think, "I worried enough for ten moms."
DeleteTHE CHOCOLATE GANACHE CAKE! HURRAH!!! I JUST COPIED IT DOWN. THANK YOU!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's a treat! It doesn't make much. One small loaf. Which was just perfect because it's so rich.
DeleteIt's dark chocolate dipped apricot season too. Another shout of joy!
ReplyDeleteOh, YUMMMMMY.
DeleteLove the Redwall reader. My 27 year old is re-reading the series as a comfort read.
ReplyDeleteI love the look of that cake but at 99 degrees in a non-air-conditioned kitchen, it's just not happening. I shall imagine the taste of yours.
Is the 27 year old a foodie? My kids say the best part of that series is the fantastical feasts. It really breaks that whole "never have your characters eat" rule. They eat all the time!
DeleteWe only have a window AC and it's 97-103 this week, but sometimes you just need cake. ;)
Delete1. In love with reluctant reader, and laughing!!!! Touche, Mama!
ReplyDelete2. Dying for this dark chocolate pound cake and the ganache and the whipped cream and life in general with chocolate!!! Wonderful, Mary Jane!
3. The pan.
Laughing at the pan because I've had a few intricate pans in my time and you're right, not everything is meant for intricacy of design, LOL!
Buttermilk orange cake, hmm??? One of my fave cakes that I haven't made in a long time was from the old Betty Crocker cookbook Williamsburg Orange Cake
Let's see if that links, I found several links to it, but the BC link calls for a Bundt pan, and when I first found this recipe it was done as a layer cake... and I still remember how amazing this cake is. Can't wait to see the orange buttermilk cake when you post it!
MMMMMM. I'm not a huge fan of orange (I'd rather have lemon cake any day) but I really loved the combo of buttermilk and orange. It was so moist and delicate.
DeleteAnd hahahaha, yes. Reverse Psychology for the win. When he started reading signs out loud (or correcting memes I'd edited for him) I started fake-yelling, "No, stop it! STOP READING!" Made him crack up. Because you know, once you start reading, you can never go back. The brain just reads before you can stop it.
Love the cake!
ReplyDeleteAnd love the reluctant reader. One of my boys was that way, too. He had turned seven and was on his way to being an eight-year-old non-reader in a family of readers when I asked him why he didn't want to learn how to read.
"Because when Carrie learned to read you stopped reading aloud to her."
"That was her choice. I'll read aloud to you as long as you want me to."
And I did - until his senior year of high school. Oh the books we enjoyed together!
Awwww!!! I love that so much!! I don't like being read to, but I love reading to others.
DeleteOn our last trip, my daughter read me from one of her new books for the last few hours on the long stretch home. We live in wheat and grass land and there was not enough coffee to keep me interested in the endless stretch of straight highway. But listening to a story did the trick!
I'm late! But I'm dying to make that chocolate cake! Sounds amazing.
ReplyDelete