Chocolate chocolate better than Vanilla . . .

Today was Daddy's 48th Birthday (boo hoo hoo hoo - I don't want my family to get older)! Here's a picture of my happy parents - I love them. Here's what 48 looks like on Daddy, I think he's cute. Check out their hats, Momma made them; she gave Daddy his blue and red hat today for a birthday present . . . the colors of his favorite football team, the New York Giants. By the way I'm reading a book called the BFG (Big Friendly Giant by Roald Dahl), and the BFG says that human beans, that's what he calls us human beings, sleep half our life. So Daddy is really only 24.
Remember a few weeks ago when I said that Vanilla Pastry's cupcakes were better than Mom's . . . ? I take it all back today. Daddy and I gave Mommy an awesome cookbook for Christmas, called Baked Explorations and we, she and I on Friday night, made the Devil's Food Cake recipe (page 133-134) as cupcakes. I was a bit suspicious since it had both coffee and dark chocolate in the recipe. Daddy actually stuck his finger in the chocolate bowl while we were working and he didn't know it was all bittersweet chocolate - he went running around looking for something to kill the bad taste - blech! On Saturday, Mommy made the frosting (different recipe, same book, page 147-148) and it had even more dark chocolate - I was extra suspicious. BUT . . . today . . . oh my gosh . . . ! These cupcakes are BETTER than Vanilla Pastry's. It's a texture thing, totally! The cake is not even like cake, it is airy, soft, moist, crumbly but still moist. And the frosting is thumb's-up perfect, just enough without being gobs of too much. Check me out, here's my seal of approval.
One more thing, I'll have to tell you about Dinette a different day (my FAVORITE PIZZA IN PITTSBURGH) but right now I would like to ask you to vote for the chef Sonja Finn in Food and Wine Magazine's "The People's Best New Chef" Award. You can vote for her at: eatocracy.com/foodandwine she's represented in the Mid-Atlantic region, one of two chefs nominated from Pittsburgh. Her bread sticks really are awesome: long and thin and crunchy and yummy. I just voted for her; I hope you will too!

See you next weekend when I tell you more about Dinette and my favorite farmer's market baker Rebecca - her zucchini bread is AWESOME, especially when toasted.