Creamy Chocolate Cake

Or, what I do for PMS...

I love me some chocolate, and the cravings can be downright overwhelming sometimes. This cake, while not instant gratification, will do the trick. I found it in Dorie Greenspan's Paris Sweets, which is a collection of pastry recipes from some of the best shops in Paris. So, if you can't afford the plane fare, pop in Amelie and bake something from the book.

This is Grandmother's Creamy Chocolate Cake from Robert Linxe.. It's dead easy, with ingredients you probably have in your kitchen. Butter, sugar, chocolate, eggs, and flour. Seriously, that's it.

It's not bake and eat, you have to wait for it to cool, then chill in the fridge, but it's totally worth it. I like to keep it in the fridge and eat it cold, so it's more fudgy, but it does lose a bit of the crunchy top that way. However, it is easier to hide from your chocolate-loving children when it's hidden on one of the upper shelves in the fridge. Because you won't want to share. Trust me on this one.

Three Graces Shirts

The Three Graces shirts from HotPatterns aren't my "ideal dream perfect" shirts, but they are pretty awesome. I bought the pattern because I loved the cross-over variation, but, having made all three, I think I love them all.

I decided to watch the YouTube videos that Trudy has helpfully put up, having had some problems in the past with the instructions for other patterns. She made it look so easy! In honor of her British accent, I decided to see how many Doctor Who episodes (Season 5 with Matt Smith) it would take me to sew one shirt. I figured one, maybe one and a half, show and I'd be done. I was both right and wrong.

I got hung up on how the cross pieces went together. For about 2 hours. A few seams were sewn and ripped out. A few curse words were muttered.

I don't have a dress form, which makes piecing together a drapey garment kind of difficult. I came up with the brilliant idea of using a pillow as an impromptu dress form, so I could see, and pin, everything, better.

After I figured out how to put together the front pieces, the rest of the shirt defintely went together easily (two Doctor Whos.). And it's beautiful. So beautiful, I decided I had to make the other two shirts.

The cowl-neck version was easy peasy (One and a half Doctor Whos). The only thing I changed was to bring the sides in a bit, since it was a bit looser than I like. The twist neck was easier than the cross front, but harder than the cowl (two Doctor Whos). Most likely, my problem was that I was overthinking the construction, as I figured out how to do it after a glass of Scotch.