I owe everyone an apology! I am an absolutely awful blogger and I don't update nearly as often as I'd like to. But, I do feel like I have a semi, half- ass excuse. This new job makes me work insane hours and I'm normally exhausted by the time I crash into bed at the end of the day. Ryan's work schedule doesn't help either.
Updates :o)
So, I enjoy my job. It's clearly not my DREAM job, but let's face it- who is actually doing what they want to do for the next 50 years? (Oh, you do Heidi Klum! Sorry, I forgot you follow me!) I work at least 3 early shifts a week (515am-115pm) which means I get up at 410. Yikes. I am not exactly what you'd call a morning person. Actually, if you talk to me before 7 am and I haven't had a cup of coffee and read USAToday I'll probably smack you. So when I get a lot of compliments from 80 year olds at the Wellness Center saying they just love how perky I am at 530 am and think I look fabulous for having just rolled out of bed, it really makes me nervous because I'm either super good at being super fake or it is true and you do get glaucoma when you hit 75 and can't see a damn thing.
After I leave work at 115pm I come home and take a two hour nap. Best part of my day hands down. I love, love, LOVE taking naps. Nittany takes a nap with me, Luna sleeps on the floor, and Coala guards the house out in the living room. It's perfect. So I get up around 4 and take the dogs out for a bit to run around and then do some dinner prep. Run 30 minutes on the treadmill then finish dinner, wake Ryan up (if on midnight, if he's on day I just wait for him to get home at 6, if he's on afternoon we don't see each other for a week straight), and we see each other for a max of 30 minutes during dinner and clean up. Then I drive to my parents' house with the dogs and go for a 2 mile walk. Come home, throw a load of laundry in or vacuum and then....begin Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred. Yes, I've become a Shreadhead. This video is not for the faint of heart. I was grunting, panting, sweating, swearing, and crying the first night I did it. The next day I could barely pull my pants up because I couldn't squat and my arms were burning. Seriously. After wanting to murder Jillian I take a shower, read for approximately 7 minutes and pass out by 945 pm. I have no life.
So today I finished Day 4. Still Level 1. It is recommended to do each level (there are 3) for 10 days each but since I never follow any directions I'm going to do each level for 7 days each. There are mixed reviews online for the results people have gotten, but I think you get out of something what you put into it. A lot of people say they didn't get any decent results with Slim in Six, but I lost 18 pounds and 2 pants sizes in 6 weeks with it. I also gave it my all and I'm giving 100% with the 30 Day Shred as well. So I have pretty high expectations.
Last night we celebrated Ryan's 27th birthday. Wow. 27. That sounds old. And then I get scared because that will be me in about 73 days. I honestly don't know where the time goes. I do know that 27 will be a great year for us and when my 27th birthday rolls around I will probably start thinking about 13 things I want to accomplish in 2013. One of them I know is to complete a 13.1 mile marathon. I'll probably walk about 8 miles of it so I'm pretty sure that's do-able.
Anyways- I asked Ryan what he wanted for his birthday and the only thing he asked for was a chocolate cake. Easy peasy. I was like, "Ok, like the kind in the pan with chocolate icing?" And he goes, "No, an extremely dark, dark, dark, black out chocolate cake." Hmmmm. Sounds simple enough. So I began researching recipes about 2 weeks ago to get some ideas of what I'd maybe even mix together and came across a 7 layer decadence. After reading the reviews, suggestions and whatnot, I decided I didn't have the time or patience to create that cake yet. I think I could probably handle it...but I knew I was working on Ryan's birthday and you have to make it all in one day and it would just be impossible. My friend Alisha sent me the recipe for a copycat Cheesecake Factory Black Out Cake. It looked much simpler and sounded pretty yummy.
I ended up baking the cake layers on Thursday night because I wanted them to definitely be cool for icing on Friday. All I can say is thank goodness the recipe said that the cake batter would be thin because it was incredibly runny before being placed in the oven. The batter puffed up nicely and my two 9'' round cake pans had a dark chocolate goodness in them. When I tried to flip the first layer out it was an epic fail. Half the cake came out and half stayed in the pan and I almost freaked out. I was able to let it cool more in the pan and use a spatula to get the rest out and piece it back together. I was a bit ahead of the game on the second pan and hit the bottom of it with a meat tenderizer for about 30 seconds before lifting it. It came out about 98% in one piece.
I let those puppies cool overnight uncovered and then wrapped foil over them the next morning before I went to work. When I came home I immediately made the chocolate ganache and placed it in the fridge for two hours while I napped. It didn't stiffen up as much as I wanted so I dumped it into my stand mixer bowl and beat in about 3 cups of confectioners' sugar. I am SO happy I chose to do this. I think the regular chocolate ganache as icing would have been overkill. I placed the bottom layer on my cake plate, placed some whipped chocolate ganache on it, layered some regular chocolate ganache on top of that (I reserved about 1 cup from being whipped) then placed the second layer on top.
I did a crumb layer all over the sides and top. Then I piped two rows on the top outside layer and pressed sugared toasted almonds into the side and top of the cake. Ta-da!
