Thursday, October 27, 2011

There's A Zebra In My Coffee

2am, 3:30am, 4:30am, 6:20am... I have a question.  How is it that a 2 year old can get up at all these times throughout the night, drag me out of bed to attend to his needs, and then be wide awake and ready to play at 7am while I feel like I just crawled out of a grave? 

And, by the way, what's with these needs?  "My arm itches!", "my foot came out of the blanky", "my nose!", "blanky's touching my chin", "not this blanky, the train blanky", "music's too loud", "where's Scout (his stuffed puppy)?"...sometimes he calls me in just because he has to fart.  "Listen O, I get enough of that from your father, but thanks for calling me in for that."

Yeah, I'm a little cranky.  I was up all night!  Usually I just need to sit down for a few minutes and enjoy a cup of coffee or two.  

Me: "Why is there a zebra in my coffee?!" 
O: "Zebra swimmin' mama.  Zebra swimmin."
Me: "Whatever" and I take a sip. "Zebra's gonna be mad when I drink up all the pool water.  Then he'll learn not to take a swim in my morning coffee."
O: "Hahaha... yeah.  Silly zebra."

This is no isolated incident.  Tomorrow it will be a fire truck sinking, or a horse drinking.  One morning I got through a whole cup before I realized the contents of an entire package of fruit snacks was in there.  I thought it tasty a little fruity.  You would think I would have learned by now not to leave my cup unattended.

I really don't care that he dumps stuff in there as long as I actually get a cup of coffee.  I do love my coffee.  Hey!  We all have a vice. If it weren't for coffee I'd probably be eye-balling that jug of cordial a little harder (read Moonshine Morning and you'll know what I mean).  Being a stay at home mom is a tough job!  It's the job that doesn't stop... all. night. long.

I included a recipe for a cake that goes great with a cup of coffee.  The "Chocolate Covered Strawberry Custard Cake" is a dense, moist, and delicious cake that I think you'll really like.  You can switch out the strawberries for something else like raspberries if you want, or completely leave the fruit out all together.  This would be great to serve to your mom friends during a play date or sit down with a slice and cup at the end of the evening when you finally get a moments peace.


The look of this cake is very similar and was borrowed from this site.
 Chocolate Covered Strawberry Custard Cake 
6oz semisweet chocolate chips
1/2C milk
1/2C brown sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 1/2C all purpose flour
1tsp baking soda
1tsp baking powder
1/2tsp coarse sea salt
1/2C butter
1/2C granulated sugar
3/4C milk
1C chopped strawberries
1tsp vanilla
6oz semisweet chocolate chips
1/3C Milk
1T butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9" springform pan.  Whisk together 2 egg yolks, and 1/2 cup milk.  In a medium saucepan over medium to high heat, stir together 6 ounces of chocolate, milk/egg mixture, and brown sugar.  Stir constantly until mixture comes to a boil.  Turn down heat and keep stirring until mixture begins to thicken but is very smooth.  Remove from heat and cool. 

Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder.  Stir sea salt into flour mixture.  Cream together 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup sugar. Alternately add flour mixture, 3/4 cups milk, and vanilla to butter/sugar mixture.  Mix until thoroughly combined.  Stir in melted chocolate mixture until well combined.  Slowly stir in chopped strawberries just until combined.  Beat egg whites until stiff peaks are formed.  Gently fold egg whites into chocolate cake batter.  Pour cake batter into prepared springform pan and gently tap on counter to level.  Bake for 30-40 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.  Cool for at least ten minutes before removing springform.  Cool completely.

For icing, melt together 6 ounces chocolate chips, 1/3 cup milk, and 1 tablespoon butter until smooth.  Cool slightly.  Pour over cooled cake, allowing icing to drip down the sides.  Garnish with sliced strawberries, and refrigerate until chocolate icing is set.

2 comments:

  1. uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.... love it!

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  2. The cake sounds delicious and the story sounds all too familiar. Only, my little monkey doesn't dunk stuff in my coffee, she swipes sips! I keep yelling at her, "you'll be that short forever!" but she either doesn't care or doesn't believe me :)

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