Spice Cake

I'm heading to a pillow-fort building/Nerf gun war/fire-spinning party tonight, and I felt like I should bake a cake! So I started with this recipe for a spice cake:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup butter, soft
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

I gave the batter a taste and it wasn't quite what I wanted, so I add a bunch more cinnamon and nutmeg. And I decided to throw in some vanilla pudding mix for a fudgier cake.

Then I remembered that I had some cardamon from my crazy herbalist friend Berry, that would be delicious. So I ran around looking for it all over the house (until I found it in wit my baking stuff). Then I went on a similar, but less successful hunt for my mortar and pestle (which must still be in Connecticut). So I ground it up with a bowl and the handle of a spoon. Not quite what I was going form, but it did the trick, and added it in. Also I totally didn't measure... just poured out some seeds and ground them.

Batter into budnt pan into oven. Baked til done, and then thrown into the freezer for quicker cooling (must get to parties on time)! After about five minutes in the freezer, I pulled it out, and flipped it out of the baking pan into the container it was leaving in, and threw it back in the freezer.

While it was cooling, I decided to make some sort of honey glaze for the cake. So I put some thistle honey in a pan with powdered sugar and melted it together. I added some nutmeg, cardamon, about a teaspoon of vanilla, and a splash of milk to the mix. The taste was fabulous... one of the best things I've come up with in a while.

I pulled out the cake, glazed it, and now I'm ready to party :)

Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate Brownies

It's been a while since I've baked much, but I felt like baking today. Besides, I haven't fed my new coworkers any of my crack yet ^_-

You want to mix together a cup of sugar, an egg, a splash of vanilla, a cup of flour, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp baking powder. In a microwave safe container, melt down a nice chunk of butter (1/4 a stickish) and 3-5 squares of baking chocolate (depending how chocolatey you like). And cause these are dark chocolate, go ahead and throw in an extra square. You know you want to. Mix that in with the rest of your batter. This time around I also threw in a dash of cinnamon and a slightly larger dash of nutmeg. Just trust me on that. And some secret ingredient... because secrets make everything taste better.

I might as well be endorsed by Reese's, because I love baking with Reese's Peanut Butter Chips. They are super tasty and make pretty much any recipe better. So to mix in that peanut butter flavor, I melted down a full bag, and added them to the mix. Usually I'd do half peanut butter chips, and half actual peanut butter, but I don't have any at the moment. I swear this works just as well; using the real peanut butter is just a cheaper option. If you're going to go straight peanut butter and ignore the deliciousness of the peanut butter chips... add some extra sugar.

Anyway batter -> pan -> oven -> delicious.

After work edit:

My coworkers devoured these before lunch. And baking is totally the way to make friends at work. They all had to come tell me how much they loved them!