Sunday, February 8, 2009

Entry #26

I entered a contest! 

Last night Logan hosted A Chocolate Festival, a community fundraiser at the local conference center downtown.  I had heard about it earlier in the week through a friend that was planning to attend and had seen the poster for it as it was being held in the same building where Isla is taking a dance class. Out of curiosity I checked out the website and discovered that a big portion of the event was the dessert contest where amateurs could enter their favorite chocolate recipes for a chance to win fame and fortune. Well okay not fortune, but some recognition anyways.  

On Friday I decided, what the heck, I've got a great chocolate cake recipe from the Whitewater cookbook, all I had to do was figure out a glaze/icing, since the Betty Crocker carton wouldn't cut it in this case. So I delved into my other cookbooks and found a few different options:

Peanut butter chocolate glaze - decided too much hype at the moment around peanut butter recalls. 
Raspberry chocolate glaze - so raspberries to be found at this time of year and doesn't fit into my eating seasonally schtick.
Toasted Coconut glaze - I had some coconut milk and flake in the cupboard, hmmmm a possibility.
Orange chocolate glaze - no oranges, but plenty of clementines. 

I ended up making both the coconut and orange (substitute clementine mandarine) glazes and  
enlisted a handful of willing taste testers. The consensus was to go with the orange. So Saturday morning became a repeat of Friday and I spent several hours in the kitchen baking and frosting cakes. Isla helped cut out little orange peel hearts with her new big kid scissors while Roscoe foraged for peel droppings on the floor.  I called my entry 'Be mine, Clementine Cake', #26. By 1:30 p.m I had dropped off the cakes (one for presentation and another for taste testing) and picked up two tickets for the evening judging event. 

Sadly we'll never know if the 'Be Mine, Clementine Cake' was a winner. We had arranged a babysitter so that we could attend the event (you had to be in attendance to win), but as sometimes life does not permit things to go as planned, Isla had a huge meltdown at bedtime and was weary of the whole sitter thing. We managed to get her tucked into bed and out the door in the end, but arrived at the event just as people were streaming out the door. Suddenly the event lost it's appeal and we went home. 

Disappointed and frustrated for having put all that effort in, I certainly was. But that is life - it doesn't always go as planned. So you'll have to decide for yourself if it is a winner. Here is the recipe. Enjoy.

Chocolate cake
1/2 cup rolled oats 
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt

Combine oats and water, set aside
Cream butter and sugar, add eggs (blending in one at a time), add vanilla
Sift dry ingredients. 
Combine wet, oats and dry in thirds
Bake 30 minutes at 350 in 9 inch pan.

Orange glaze
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
4 Tbsp fresh squeezed clementine (orange) juice
1 tsp grated rind

Melt glaze ingredients on medium heat until smooth, apply to cooled cake, sprinkle with more grated rind. 



2 comments:

gladventurer said...

Eden, your'e a winner every time you try something new.
Remember , it's the journey that counts ,not the final destination!

Better luck next time.
You are the prize

www.anns blog said...

Your cake sounds delicious and I will be giving it a try.
Ann