Dinner and Dessert....

I really surprised myself this evening.  I made a fabulous dessert and dessert isn't even my forte.  I guess it's not THAT difficult if you follow a recipe, but for some reason I was always intimidated when it came to baking.  It took a few bad experiences for me to just say forget it and hang it up all together.  I'm starting to feel encouraged, especially after my husband just told me that I made the greatest dessert he's ever had and said "My tummy is doing a happy dance."  And then I just about fell out when he said he needed the Yo Gabba Gabba suit so he could dance around like Dj Lance so he could do the party in my tummy dance.  WOW!!!  Lol. 

I tried my hand at baking and used this recipe to make a chocolate cake and added a little bit of a spin to it.  I added some raspberries to the glaze and boiled it so the raspberry flavor could be absorbed in the cocoa.  I added caramel to the cake and then added fresh raspberries and blackberries.  So we had the cake with vegan vanilla ice cream and a tiny bit of mint and it was DELICIOUS!!!!.  I mean really.  The cake was pretty simple and very good.  I of course substituted the flour and the sugar for agave honey, but followed the recipe for the mix pretty much to the letter. 

I was a little disappointed because when I flipped my cake some of it stuck to the pan.  What I ended up doing was scraping out the cake the was stuck to the pan and  pressing it into a tiny dessert bowl, cutting up berries, adding some caramel and pressing another layer of cake on top and then adding chocolate sauce and ice cream.  This was a definite winner and the end product:

Cake on the bottom with caramel, strawberries and chocolate glaze

Top layer of cake with berries...

Topped with vegan vanilla ice cream and mint.  YUM!!

Funny that I would start with the dessert...Lol 

I had to satisfy my Tuna craving so we had Ahi Tuna again with a ginger and sesame sauce and my new favorite veggie asparagus.  I also had NEVER cooked polenta before and wanted some really bad so I decided to cook that.  It was actually pretty good but I felt it was a little to heavy for the fish and decided to cook a Coconut and cashew basmati rice.  It had a GREAT spiciness to it and it went really well with the tuna.  But I still wanted the polenta so I served both.  I know I know....don't even say it.  I know it was a bit much, but it was soooo good.  

I just roasted the asparagus with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Tasty!

Ready for the oven

Finished plating and fresh raspberry and blackberry lemonade

Closer pic.  It needs a garnish and something red...still great tasting though

And then the actual cake....The family crushed it.  There's like NOTHING left but crumbs. Lol.  They're all asking me to make another one tomorrow. 

Gotta work on my decorating Lol  Next time I'll strain out the berry seeds

SOOOOO GOOD!!!!! 

I think tomorrow I'll do the cake with caramel and chocolate between two layers and hope that they don't stick this time.  Oh yeah....My fast is over by the way.  It lasted all of 12 hours.  LOL.  My greed has definitely overpowered my discipline.  Oh well.  Better luck next time right.  Lol

So that's it for me people.  Hope you all are enjoying your weekend.  

Peace and Blessings till next time......