Chocolate Orange Cake

Following the 2 successful attempts at Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, I've decided to try a cake!

I searched and searched until I found something that seemed simple enough for me to make and that I would actually want to eat. I found a perfect match for me--Chocolate Orange Cake! 

The recipe I found was very simple to follow and didn't have any foreign ingredients.  

Duration: 1.5 hours

Level: (for me?) Intermediate

1. I mixed 4 eggs, 1 cup of orange juice (pulp free), 1 cup of oil, and 2 cups of sugar. (The recipe didn't specify brown or white, so I just used brown sugar.) Then combined that with 3 cups of flour, 2 tsp of baking powder, and a tiny bit of salt. 

2. I divided the batter into 2, and poured melted dark chocolate into one. 

It started looking very pretty from here!

3. Then I poured the batter mixed with chocolate into the baking pan, and added the batter without chocolate on top. 

4. Then mixed the two batters a little bit to create a cool swirl. Well, it didn't turn out as cool as I wanted it to, but considering that it's my first cake, I was happy with it.

5. Baked at a 350F degree oven for 40 minutes, and voila!

My first cake, my first Chocolate Orange Cake is done!

Now, I did create something that looks like a cake, so I gave myself kudos on that. But when I took a bite, it tasted like it was missing something... There was some chocolate and some orange, but I could've used more chocolate and orange. And I was hoping for a cooler swirl effect! 

I can criticize my product forever if I can go on, but I won't. I will give myself two thumbs up for successfully baking a cake--it looks like one and it holds like one! 

I was hoping to bring this into work tomorrow to share with my co-workers. I might have to reconsider... OR maybe I should bring it in so those more experienced bakers can tell me how to improve my cake! We shall see.

First day of real real snow!

It's "wrap myself in a blanket with hot-chocolate" kind of night!

Jan. 10, 2012

On my way to work on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012, I found myself driving towards this perfectly round Moon.  It was getting ready to hide itself for the day, right near the horizon.

It looked like a faded white stamp of a circle. Yet, there was something romantic about it. Only seen in the middle of winter. 

This is one of many reasons why winter is my favorite season.

Home

This winter break (lucky me to still get to call this "winter break"!), I'm spending my Christmas in Columbus.  When I decided not to go home, which happened about 2 months ago, I didn't think too much of it. I thought I could handle it--no problemo.  I actually thought it would be great to have a white Christmas and feel the holiday spirit to the max!  Well, things didn't go as I planned. As I sit in my apartment and look out the window, I see rain falling, not snow!

A few days ago, I heard on the radio that there is 23% chance of Columbus getting 1 inch of snow, and 0% chance of 5 inches of snow.  Since then, I've been feeling low. I checked flights last minute to see if I can go home.  I clicked the refresh button on weather.com several times hoping to see the chance of snow magically increase.  But nope, I had to settle with rain and no family for this winter break--at least for the first part.

Hence, I'm pretending to be at home in California. Good thing that I'm pretty good at imagining things!
First stop, San Francisco!

And my final destination, Southern California/Home!

Merry Sunny Christmas!