Best laid plans…

It’s my sponsor’s birthday today, and I wanted to do something special for her. With money a little tight, the best I could muster was a homemade birthday cake. She’s into the low-carb thing, so I made a flourless chocolate cake that’s really easy and quite tasty. It was sitting on the counter under a clean tea towel, ready to be transported when disaster struck. Edyn, in a fit of toddler curiosity, snatched the towel and brought the cake and cake plate down onto the kitchen floor, smashing both to smithereens. She burst into tears and my husband snatched her up before she managed to step on a shard of glass and cut her little foot. Then she proceeded to cry for another 25 minutes while I held her on my lap in a "time-in" and my husband cleaned up the mess. I wanted to cry, too, but all I could do was call my sponsor and tell her we wouldn’t be bringing a birthday cake to her today after all.

"Time-in," for those of you who haven’t heard of it, is an alternative to "time-out." Edyn is too little to stay in time-out without constant supervision anyway, so a time-in makes more sense with her. Basically, instead of expecting her to calm herself down, I try to help her by stroking her back or hair and occasionally whispering something into her ear. I usually don’t force her to stay on my lap, but with broken glass all over the kitchen floor, it was a safety issue. Frankly, I don’t know if she was crying because she was still scared from the cake thing or because she was angry that I wouldn’t put her down. Maybe both.

Well, if I get a chance to run to the store tonight, I will have to pick up some more chocolate chips so I can make another cake. Or maybe you’d like to try it? It’s a nice fudgy cake with one of those "cracked" tops.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 bag chocolate chips (don’t skimp – buy the tastiest ones you can find)
6 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar (or sugar substitute like Splenda if you are going low-carb)
6 egg yolks

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Butter a 9" springform pan (mine is 10" and it works fine). Melt the butter and chocolate chips together, set aside to cool a bit. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in sugar or sugar substitute and beat until stiff peaks form. Retrieve the chocolate mixture and whisk in the egg yolks. Fold 1/4 the whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, then fold the chocolate mixture into the remaining whites. Transfer to prepared pan; smooth the top. Bake 45-50 minutes or until the sides begin to pull away from the pan and the center is just set. Cool completely on a wire rack (top will sink in as it cools). Unmold and sprinkle the top with powdered sugar if you like.

--Sparki