So, great news. I'm now brave enough to take showers during the day when I'm all alone with both babies! Yeah, Eloise Grace will be four months old on Friday which means that for the last four months I have been averaging between 3 and 4 showers a week and that is simply unacceptable. I had no idea how invigorating and, dare I say, humanizing showering can be. This is how I do it: nurse Eloise until she passes out and quickly pop pacifier into her mouth then very gently transfer her to the swing. Oh yeah, and I HAVE to do this at approximately 9am because that is when Sesame Street comes on. That's right parenting gods, I know I promised to wait until Helen Mae was two before letting her so much as glance at the TV, but guess what, she's 20 months old and she is in love with Elmo. Oh, and I've decided not to feel guilty about it either- I've decided to save up my guilt for better things. Things like having two slices of this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe: cherry-fudge brownie torte in place of doing my pilates DVD last night.
This week's delicious recipe was chosen by April of Short + Rose and can be found on her blog. I decided to skip the mousse (cream cheese, cream, mascarpone cheese, and sugar) that was supposed to adorn the top of this lovely, rich cake. The cake was so good that I didn't want to risk hating the mousse because of the cream cheese- I know, I know, that's kind of babyish, but I really hate it! The texture of the cake is very fudgy (as the name would imply). The cake is full of chocolate- both melted semi-sweet and cocoa powder and studded with dried cherries that have been cooked down in cherry brandy (couldn't find the kirsch that Dorie called for). I really, really loved the combination- it was a very sophisticated take on Black Forrest cake- I might even top it with plain old whipped cream next time I make it.
This cake was so good that I gave a third of it away and put a third of it in the freezer so that we wouldn't scarf the whole thing down!
