A Chef in the Making

I've pretty much given up on being allowed to put together a meal on my own .... even including toasting a bagel. Madeleine seems to have this sixth sense about when it is time to start cooking supper. I've tried sneaking upstairs (or downstairs) as the case may be to cook, but I turn around and there she is, dragging the chair after me and grabbing whatever utensils she deems appropriate. I suppose I should embrace the help before she decides it is work she doesn't want to do or that mom is uncool to hang around with.

I've decided that my love of cooking come from both grandmother's as my mom made it pretty clear while we were growing up that cooking was not on her list of favorite things to do. My Italian grandmother always seemed to have a cake in the pantry for guests to snack on. Every weekend there was homemade sauce and meatballs on some sort of pasta.

My Polish grandmother was the same way. She was always cooking something. This Tuesday is Paczki ("Poonch-key") Day, which means this weekend would have been a VERY busy weekend in the kitchen. My aunt has carried on the tradition as I know several of my first cousins are getting together this weekend to make them. I have seen them for sale here at the grocery store and was lured into trying them. Once. It was nothing more than a jelly donut. So disappointing. But I digress.

Last weekend my holper and I decided we were going to make a heart-shaped cake for Valentine's Day. One of my favorite (and quickest) cakes to put together is this Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake from Cooking Light. I make a few modifications to the original recipe as I am not a huge fat of the fat free products (OK, I don't like all the chemicals added when fat is removed ... seriously, HFCS is needed in sour cream ... but again, I digress). Here is our finished product:

Chocolate-Chip Bundt Cake

1 cup sour cream (I discovered yogurt works well when your sour cream is fuzzy)
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon warm water
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons instant espresso or 4 teaspoons instant coffee granules
4 whole eggs
1 (18.25-ounce) package devil's food cake mix (without pudding in the mix)
1 (3.9-ounce) package chocolate instant pudding mix

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips (um, more like a cup)

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350°.

Coat a 12-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray, and dust with flour; set aside.
Combine the sour cream and next 6 ingredients (sour cream through chocolate pudding mix) in a large bowl, and beat mixture at medium speed of a mixer for 3 minutes. Add the chocolate chips, and beat the mixture for 30 seconds.

Spoon the cake batter into the prepared Bundt pan. Bake cake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack. Invert cake onto a wire rack, and cool completely. Sprinkle cake with powdered sugar.

We used a basic white frosting recipe off of recipezaar.com but as I look at it I realize that I didn't really follow the recipe at all. Huh, imagine that. Must have been busy trying to prevent someone from adding pumpkin pie spice (the one she always grabs) to the bowl. :)