An Impressive Dessert Recipe: Easy Molten Chocolate Cakes

Have you ever needed a recipe for an impressive dessert? Did you consider baking Molten Chocolate Cakes, but decided they were too difficult? If so, I have the perfect easy recipe for you!

Mindy, a fictional character in a short story I have been writing, is the reason for my discovery of this recipe. In the most recent chapter, Mindy was preparing a Valentine's Day dinner for her boyfriend Ryan and hoping it would inspire him to offer her a marriage proposal. Due to unexpected circumstances Ryan may never

Share and Tell ...

Today I am going to just share a few links to recipes I've tried, and tell you about some things I've learned on my computer this week.

Chocolate can be for breakfast - and snack time too. 

I couldn't resist making this recipe for Chocolate Banana muffins from a fun blog called Fork Knife Swoon, which I recently discovered.

I made just a couple of changes to the recipe:

• I used soy milk instead of almond milk, and added 1/2 tsp almond flavoring
• I put the mini chips right into the batter (instead of just sprinkling them on top).
• Instead of regular-sized muffins, I made mini-muffins (about 5 dozen).  Watch closely and reduce baking time (in my oven it was about 11 minutes) until a tester comes out clean.

If you love chocolate - you would love these!  Here's a few photos of the muffins I made:

Chocolate Banana muffins - MMmmm!

Easier than making cookies - and just as good

I have a new favorite recipe to use, when I need to bake something up for a crowd.  I have tried other chocolate chip cookie bar recipes, but never has one been as good as this recipe for Chocolate Chip Pan Cookies from Nestle.  These take less time to make (and less slaving over a hot oven) than cookies.  When baked in a 15x10-inch jelly roll pan, and cut fairly small, this is a good sized batch of bars.  They travel well - but they probably won't last long!

Chocolate Chip Pan Cookies - packed and ready to be shared!

An apology 

I recently published a post about the closure of Yahoo Contributor Network, and mentioned that on July 31st all contributor content was to be removed from Yahoo Voices.  I assumed that would mean the links to all of the articles I had published there would just become dead links.  I expected that they would now lead to a message "We are sorry but the content you are looking for no longer exists," or some similarly worded phrase.  To my surprise, when I now click on these links, they redirect to the Yahoo home page - without any mention of the articles I wrote or similar information provided for you to easily find.  

If I may vent for just a moment: Although overall, being a contributor to Yahoo was a great experience, I now feel a little "used." Perhaps you should as well!  My articles have been removed from cyberspace, but YCN is still using their ‘ghost links’ as a way to direct traffic to their site.  This wastes your time, and in no way benefits me. In fact, it will probably be a frustrating experience for you, as it may take a few minutes to realize the information you seek is probably not on that page.  I feel badly about this - but I suspect that Yahoo does not.  The longer you look around to find what you originally wanted to read, the happier they probably will be.

I am very sorry for any inconvenience this causes you.  I will attempt to remove or redirect as many of the links to Yahoo Voices content from this blog and my Pinterest boards as soon as possible, but it may take a while.  

Did you notice these words - “You might also like: ” 

There is something new on my blog. A few thumbnail photos of previously published posts will now appear at the bottom of each post on my blog. It was surprisingly easy to add this feature, using a tutorial from the LinkWithin website. Even better, the selection and placement of these links is all done automatically for me.  I hope this is a helpful feature.  Like the "back to top" and "print" features I have added, this will hopefully make my blog more easily navigable for you.  

I have never been very computer savvy, but I am gradually learning and gaining confidence in working with the technical computer aspects of a blog.  Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?!  (Now I just hope I don't accidentally erase the whole thing!)

What suggestions do you have to make this site easier to read?

Chocolate or Vanilla?

Many words have been written about people's preferences for chocolate or vanilla. The superiority of one versus the other is often debated. You can even take a quiz to determine what type of personality you are, based on your favorite flavor!  So, which is better?

Growing up, I scorned both. They seemed much too common for my taste!  Trips to the Dairy Queen had me deliberating between the flavors of butter pecan, maple walnut, caramel, and all the enticing possibilities on the menu. Years later, while I still like variety, I now appreciate the merits of rich chocolate and aromatic vanilla. I really couldn't say which I like better.

Many people have trouble when they have to choose. That is why I came up with a solution to make everyone happy at my son's birthday party one year. I made a cake of both flavors, which I iced with chocolate and vanilla frosting. It was a huge hit.  I included the directions for making it when I wrote "How to Bake a Cake With Both Chocolate and Vanilla Frosting." To read it, click on the link.* (see note below)

This cake made both chocolate and vanilla lovers happy!

Perhaps there is no reason for debate - not when you can "have your (chocolate and vanilla) cake, and eat it too"! 

Chocolate or Vanilla?  Which one gets your vote?

*10/4/14 NOTE: The link to the article mentioned does not currently work, as the site it was published on is no longer in existence. I apologize for this inconvenience, and if it is republished I will update the link it is now published here: How to Make a Cake for Both Chocolate and Vanilla Lovers.