Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting

This is the best chocolate cake recipe. I have made it several times and it comes out great every time.

CAKE
2 cups All-purpose flour
2 tsp Baking powder
2 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Salt
2 cups Sugar
4 oz Unsweetened chocolate, chopped
6 tbsp Unsalted butter
1 tsp Vanilla extract
2 Eggs, lightly beaten

FROSTING
1 ⅓ cups Heavy cream
1 ½ cups Sugar
6 oz Unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 stick + 2 tbsp Unsalted butter
1 ½ tsp Vanilla extract
1 pinch Salt


MAKE THE CAKE
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter and flour two 8-by-1½ inch round cake pans.  Line the bottom with wax paper.  

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a saucepan, bring the sugar and 2 cups of water to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves: pour into heat proof bowl.

Add the chocolate and butter and stir until the chocolate melts and the mixture cools slightly.

Beat in vanilla and eggs.  

Add the dry ingredients and beat until smooth.

Pour the batter into the pans and bake for 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean.

Cool the cakes on a rack for 25 minutes, then invert them onto the rack to cool completely.

Peel off the wax paper.


MAKE THE FROSTING
In a medium saucepan, bring the cream and sugar to a boil.

Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring until the cream reduces slightly, 6 minutes.

Pour the cream into a heatproof bowl and add the remaining ingredients.

Stir until the chocolate and butter are melted.

Set the bowl in ice water.  Using a handheld electric mixer, beat the frosting at medium speed until thick and glossy, 5 minutes.

Set one cake on a platter, right side up.  Using a metal spatula, spread ⅓ of the frosting evenly over it.  

Top with the second cake and spread with the remaining frosting.

41 down 27 to go!

I am getting closer and closer to my end goal.  When I started, 68 pounds seemed so far away but it is getting within my grasp. 

This is my first time to be back in the 220s since 2010 and I am pretty excited about it.  Which just motivates me to keep going!

The amount of energy I have now is great and a lot of the daily aches and pains are going away!

My next big hurdle is going to be the week of vacation Karie, I, and the kiddos have coming up. 

Hopefully, since our vacations tend to be filled with a lot of walking and hiking there won't be any weight gain on this trip.  It is really hard when you are not in a familiar location to find "healthy" places to eat, but the place we are staying has a full kitchen.  I will be trying to cook dinners back at the lake house when possible. 

34 down and 34 to go, HALF WAY!

This morning I finally hit the half way mark on my way down to 200 lbs.  It has been a lot of work to get this far.  As I lose the weight it becomes easier to do some of the things that I enjoy, especially riding, running, and hiking. 

We try to go hiking on Sundays after Church and lunch.  I usually put Samantha in our Kelty backpack and with Samantha in there it weighs about 40 lbs.  When I strap that backpack on it's like putting all that weight back on.  I can't believe I  walked around all the time with that much additional weight on me.  No wonder I felt so bad!

I get questions now and then about what "magical" thing I am doing to lost the weight.  Some people don't seem to believe that it's just watching what I eat and exercise. (I don't like the word diet, because I am not on a diet.  I have made healthy changes to my lifestyle that hopefully will be life long changes)  Eat normal portion sizes, stay away from fast food, and work off those pounds!  It all starts with what you put in your mouth.  I am using myfitnesspal.com to track my meals.  If anyone wants to join me my user name is "kennethr75".  I can always use some more friends out there to motivate me.

My next milestone weight is really only 1 pound away.  When I hit 233 my BMI will drop down to 29.9 which means I am only "Overweight" and no longer "Obese".  Yes, I am currently classified as "Obese". 

For me, BMI is a joke and does not accurately measure my level of health.  If I followed this scale, I would have to get down to 194 to be considered healthy.  Shoot! My 200lbs goal is going to be hard enough to reach and this stupid measurement says I need to lose 6 more pounds just to be on the top end of healthy.  I can guaranty if I make it to 200lbs I am going to be pretty damn healthy. 

Hopefully my next entry about losing 40 pounds will be just around the corner!

21 down 47 to go!

It has taken me a little while to get to the 20 pound lost mark but I am finally there.  The addition to our family at the end of February derailed me a little bit but I am back on track.  So I have lost 21 pounds and now have 47 left to go.

It's amazing the difference 20 pounds makes.  My clothes are starting to fit better.  I am able to start running again, even if it is only on the treadmill and I am back on my bikes.  As the pounds come off I just get faster and faster on the mountain and road bike.

The picture on the left is after I wiped out at Rowlett Creek last weekend.  Went into a muddy corner way to fast.  Luckily it was a pretty soft landing.

Today I was able to get out to one of my favorite trails, Erwin Park here in McKinney.  I have always used Erwin Park as my measure of fitness.  It is a hill, semi-technical trail and when I am in really good shape I can do laps in sub 50 minute times.  Today's lap was at 65 minutes, so I have quite a ways to go.  BUT, this was better than expected and I didn't have a flat front tire and no rear brake for the last 1.5 miles of the trail.  This caused me to endo as I exited the trail and bash my knee.  Feels good to be back on my bike!

I feel like I am still on track to do the NTX Mountain Bike series late this summer but I still have a way to go!!!

Tired

I know I haven't written anything out here since the new year but I have a very good excuse.  We just had a new baby on February 29.  So it might be a few more weeks before I get some entries back out here but I promise I'll do it.

Resolutions, goals, whatever you want to call them!

I know these are a couple of days late but here are my new years resolutions or goals for the upcoming year.

1.  Lose 60 lbs - I have actually already started to work on this goal.  Before Christmas this goal was more like lose 70 lbs but I have taken a little bit off so far and will continue.  I am hoping to be down in the 210s by the time the MTB races start in late summer.

2.  Be active 7 hours a week - This is actually what I used to do when I was in shape.  I made sure I got 7 hours of exercise in a week.  I am not too picky about the form of this exercise as long as I am being active at least one hour a day.

3.  Run at least one of the fall DORBA races - I really miss my mountain bike rides.  After Kevin got sick just seemed to stop riding.  So this year I am going to get back on my bike and run the races again.  It's been probably 5 years since I rode a race.

4.  Watch less TV - I am able to meet #2 on this list then this won't be that hard.  I have already gone through my DVR and killed several shows that honestly were not that good but I watched them anyway.

5. Ride 100 miles in one day - This is something I always wanted to do.  I would really like to do the Hotter than Hell 100 but I am not sure that is within my grasp this year.  But I would take just getting on my trainer and knocking out 100 miles in one day.

6.  Start running again - I would really like to start running again.  Unfortunately this might be out of my control due to some chronic injuries and problems.  However, once my weight starts to drop down a little I would really like to start getting back out and pounding the pavement.

7.  Get outdoors more - I just spend too much time inside.

8.  Fit into that damn Yahoo jersey! - John bought me that jersey when he was on the Yahoo! campus.  He bought a XXL but it is a European size and the XXL only refers to the length not the girth of the person.  SO I have never fit into it, but this year will be the year!!!

And GO!
Here's to a great new year!!!