Another post a mere two days after the previous one? Surely you jest. For some reason, when I’m not flying by the seat of my pants just trying to get through a couple weeks of school, I have a much stronger drive to write. Everyone was quite loopy on Friday after our anesthesiology exam. That made parasitology lab into quite an experience. It seemed that every time a particular lab instructor walked past our lab table, I was laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face. Being a graduate of this program, I think she understands. At one point we were looking at a preserved slide sample of blood from a cat who was infected with a species of cat heartworm it had picked up while visiting Africa with its owner. I don’t know about you, but if I ever visit Africa, I’m not bringing my cat. Can you say lion bait?
Interestingly enough, I’ve been cooking and baking a lot lately. I went to three dinner parties and was contracted to bring the dessert. The first one was a vegan chocolate cake. This was my first experience with vegan cooking and I was a little nervous, but I never back down from a challenge. My friend’s roommate is allergic to dairy products and eggs, so a vegan cake was the best option. After several phone calls, I figured out that most cocoa powder is vegan and that a local store carries milk-free ch0colate. I think the cake ended up looking really nice.
My second contracted baking experience manifested itself as a 3-layer chocolate cake with a cream cheese/peanut butter filling and frosting topped with a peanut butter and chocolate ganache. Let us all take a moment and consider the deliciousness. We had rather generous servings and regretted it. The cake was SO rich that I didn’t want to move for the rest of the night.
After that cake, I decided that the next dessert I was going to make would be healthier. That is when I decided on fruit pizza. It’s a sugar cookie crust with a sweetened cream cheese “sauce” topped with fresh fruit. I used my tart pan to get a nice decorative edge on the crust. It’s one of my favorite things to make because it looks so pretty when it’s done.
Even though I’ve been too busy with school to think, I’ve still managed to do some fun stuff on the side. I’m not sure what my next challenge will be. I’ve been dying to try a new frosting technique for cookies, but that may need to wait until summer when I have a bit more time. We’ll see!
Recipe credits:
I found the vegan cake recipe on Chowhound. It’s the recipe post from 12/9/05 titled “Dark Chocolate Vegan Cake”.
The Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake is from a post by the Sassy Radish.
The fruit pizza came from my head/past experience. Buy a tube of sugar cookie dough and press it into a tart pan or round pizza pan. Mix 8oz softened cream cheese with 1 tsp vanilla and sweeten to taste. Spread cream cheese mix onto cooled cookie shell and top with fresh fruit of your choice.
