Thursday thrift....

Do you bake? CAN you bake? If not-why not? Baking from scratch is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to save yourself some of your $$$$. I know some people are intimidated about getting in the kitchen ( it comes with the house for a reason people..... ;) ) and creating culinary concocotions-but I truly don't understand it.

Baking is a form of chemistry-and unlike high school chemistry where you had to memorise elemental tables ( elemental? More like just plain old mental if you ask me!) etc, with Kitchen Chemistry all you have to do is precisely follow a recipe ( if you are a beginner- I tend to tweak these days...)and voila! Food!

I had a craving for a deeply decadent chocolate mud cake this week- but didn't have any chocolate in the house ( I didn't have any because if I buy it it gets eaten and then when I need some there is none, so I buy it and it gets eaten and then when I need it.....get the picture? ) so I used the Frugal Chocolate Cake recipe which is a great standby. I noticed that Sandra at http://alifeslowingdown.blogspot.com.au/ also uses this recipe- tasty isn't it Sandra?

 My lovely Kitchen Aid Mixer- AKA as the Porn Star after someone called it Kitchen Porn-isn't she beautiful? Oh, and that is the cocoa/water mix & eggs waiting to go in.

 Creaming butter and sugar

 Mmmm.....delicious and decadent....these days I get to lick the beater because the fledglings have flown and I tend to cook when no-one else is at home-just so that I can lick the beater!

My secret tweak- a couple of spoonfuls of a locally distilled Green Walnut Liquer. I also topped the cake with a White Chocolate ganache-to juxtapose with the deep chocolate colour of the cake itself.

Sorry-no after pics because the cake was soooooo good that there isn't any left! His Lordship scoffed it- I promise....leaving me to but taste the crumbs ( Ok,ok maybe a slice or two!)